<v Speaker 1>This is episode nine to twenty nine of The Solemn

<v Speaker 1>Monster Sounds Off for Sunday, September fourteenth, twenty twenty five.

<v Speaker 1>It's been a rough weekend. I spend most of my

<v Speaker 1>day yesterday at the hospital. A close family member, really,

<v Speaker 1>one of the only close family members that my brother

<v Speaker 1>and I have left an hour immediate family circle, at

<v Speaker 1>a very bad accident at home and is paralyzed from

<v Speaker 1>the waist down.

<v Speaker 2>She's in surgery right now.

<v Speaker 1>It's a very risky twelve hour operation that they started

<v Speaker 1>last night. It might give her a fighting chance to

<v Speaker 1>regain feeling in that part of her body, but right now,

<v Speaker 1>I just want her to make it through okay. And

<v Speaker 1>there's not a whole lot for us to do other

<v Speaker 1>than wait for an update. So this will be a

<v Speaker 1>way for me to take my mind off things for

<v Speaker 1>a bit. And there was a lot of news this week,

<v Speaker 1>even in just the last twenty four hours. We got

<v Speaker 1>to talk about Dropped Gone from WWE, WrestleMania coming to

<v Speaker 1>Saudi Arabia, Wressell Palooza predictions, How ridiculous does that sound?

<v Speaker 1>Wressell Palooza predictions, Warner Brothers Discovery could soon end up

<v Speaker 1>under new ownership, what that could mean for Ae w

<v Speaker 1>Wardlow already injured, all out predictions and more. If you

<v Speaker 1>would like to make a PayPal donation and support the show,

<v Speaker 1>I do appreciate it ten dollars and more. We'll get

<v Speaker 1>you a nickname and a shout out over on the

<v Speaker 1>Solomonster dot com. I want to say thank you to

<v Speaker 1>the Portland pop star Paul Hamilton. Paul, that was very

<v Speaker 1>generous of you. Thank you, my friend Big B Bryant, Messera,

<v Speaker 1>The Diamond Dallas Dance Machine, Harrison Soepp, Velvet Revolver, Robert Murray,

<v Speaker 1>The Chicago Slayer, Willie Eicherd, Knight Stalker, n f Alsafar,

<v Speaker 1>Recon Russell Bullwaar, The Georgia Nightmare, Timothy Tillis and Killshot

<v Speaker 1>Keith Hart. Thank you, gentlemen very much much. Also, I

<v Speaker 1>want to mention if you are a channel member on YouTube,

<v Speaker 1>specifically a Legends tier member, first time at a long time.

<v Speaker 1>But I'm trying to circle back around to these and

<v Speaker 1>getting these up. The lost episodes of the sound off

<v Speaker 1>between two thousand and seven and two thousand and nine,

<v Speaker 1>which are not up anywhere. It's probably about the first

<v Speaker 1>eighty four episodes or so the first thirteen that I

<v Speaker 1>ever did are up. They've been up for a while,

<v Speaker 1>but now episode fourteen is up from February tenth, two

<v Speaker 1>thousand and eight. So if you want to go back

<v Speaker 1>in the time capsule see what was going on in

<v Speaker 1>the world of wrestling, get my thoughts on that. Episode

<v Speaker 1>fourteen is up right now for Legends Tier members on YouTube.

<v Speaker 1>There are more to come, so if you are not

<v Speaker 1>already a Legends Tier member, you can go ahead and

<v Speaker 1>jump on there. I think you may enjoy that little

<v Speaker 1>trip down memory lane. Saudi Arabia is getting next year's

<v Speaker 1>Royal Rumble for the first time. We already knew that,

<v Speaker 1>but they are not stopping there. That was the big

<v Speaker 1>news of the week. For the first time, WrestleMania will

<v Speaker 1>be held outside North America. Sorry UK fans, you're gonna

<v Speaker 1>have to wait because it's re odd season WWE, where

<v Speaker 1>every season is riodd season. But Saudi Arabia will be

<v Speaker 1>hosting WrestleMania forty three in twenty twenty seven. Remember that

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania eight press conference. They had Hogan and Savage and

<v Speaker 1>Piper sid Undertaker. They were all sitting around Jack Tunney

<v Speaker 1>as he announces who will be wrestling Rick Flair for

<v Speaker 1>the World Championship, and Sid starts to stand up, thinking

<v Speaker 1>that it's him, But then they announced Hogan and Sid

<v Speaker 1>sits back down.

<v Speaker 2>Oh man, he's ripping his papers up. That's what I.

<v Speaker 1>Pictured in my head as I was watching that press

<v Speaker 1>conference on Friday, Like if you could even call it that,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, there were no press, there were no fans

<v Speaker 1>actually in the room for this announcement, But it made

<v Speaker 1>me think of that, like the UK was Sid and

<v Speaker 1>Saudi was Hogan. Saudi might want Hogan to wrestle on

<v Speaker 1>that show. Who wants to tell him? Who wants to

<v Speaker 1>break the news to them? During the week, there was

<v Speaker 1>an Arabic press release that leaked early announcing that WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>would be heading to Saudi in twenty twenty seven. It

<v Speaker 1>was quickly yanked. Whoever the poor soul was that leaked it,

<v Speaker 1>I certainly would not want to be that person. So

<v Speaker 1>the announcement got spoiled a few days early. Then on Thursday,

<v Speaker 1>Triple h tweeted that at three pm Eastern on Friday,

<v Speaker 1>they would be making an announcement that would change the game.

<v Speaker 1>I'm still waiting for this game changing announcement or the

<v Speaker 1>game changing part of this announcement. They've been running Saudi

<v Speaker 1>shows since twenty eighteen. They're running more international shows now

<v Speaker 1>than ever before. They've already announced the Royal Rumble is

<v Speaker 1>coming to Saudi for the first time on January thirty.

<v Speaker 2>First.

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania being hosted outside North America might have been a

<v Speaker 1>game changer ten years ago. Today if it's just another

<v Speaker 1>cash grab, you know, a long line of cash grabs,

<v Speaker 1>and that's fine, it's what they do. They go where

<v Speaker 1>the money is fair enough. But there's nothing game changing

<v Speaker 1>about any of this unless you consider the price tag,

<v Speaker 1>and that's not anything that they would announce publicly. So

<v Speaker 1>I'm still left wondering exactly how this changes anything out

<v Speaker 1>of the ordinary. Joe Tessitur hosted the event in Las Vegas.

<v Speaker 1>They had a whole event, actually, I described the WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>eight press conference.

<v Speaker 2>It was kind of set up like that. They had

<v Speaker 2>a stage.

<v Speaker 1>Joe Testitour was at the podium Hosting Vegas, of course,

<v Speaker 1>is where everybody was on Friday for the Canelo Alvarez

<v Speaker 1>fight that TKO was hosting this weekend, and WWE was

<v Speaker 1>hosting the Triple A Worlds Collide event there as well,

<v Speaker 1>so he brought out Sewn, Michaels and the Undertaker. Live

<v Speaker 1>Morgan was there, Charlotte Flair, Bianca bell Air, Logan, Paul Seth, Rawlins,

<v Speaker 1>and then Triple H for the announcement. I have seen

<v Speaker 1>hostage videos people look happier than the wrestlers did here

<v Speaker 1>standing in the background. They did not want to be there.

<v Speaker 1>They also had the head of the General Entertainment Authority

<v Speaker 1>in Saudi Turkey, Al al Shek, the man responsible for

<v Speaker 1>bringing all of these events over to the kingdom. He

<v Speaker 1>spoke and he even invoked the name of Vince McMahon,

<v Speaker 1>which I'm sure thrilled them to no end when he

<v Speaker 1>was talking about Vince being part of the conversations on

<v Speaker 1>day one that started their relationship in the first place.

<v Speaker 1>It will remain a two night event, although they did

<v Speaker 1>not announce what the actual dates would be. Mike Johnson,

<v Speaker 1>a PW insider, says the amount of money that the

<v Speaker 1>company is being paid for the event is mind blowing.

<v Speaker 1>Meltzer says it's in the nine figure range, said to

<v Speaker 1>be well over one hundred million dollars. Oh I would

<v Speaker 1>bet it's a lot more than one hundred million dollars.

<v Speaker 1>If they're getting fifty million per show right now, I

<v Speaker 1>mean for shows like Crown Jewel or King and Queen

<v Speaker 1>of the Ring. If they're getting fifty million dollars for

<v Speaker 1>one of those shows, I mean they may be getting

<v Speaker 1>one hundred million for the Royal Rumble. For WrestleMania, it

<v Speaker 1>could be more than twice as much. Dave also says

<v Speaker 1>the Saudis pushed heavily for the show in twenty twenty seven,

<v Speaker 1>even though WWE wanted to do it there in twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty eight. I don't know what they would have done

<v Speaker 1>for twenty twenty seven, probably gone back to Vegas again.

<v Speaker 2>But they still owe New.

<v Speaker 1>Orleans a WrestleMania since they announced it publicly and then

<v Speaker 1>they yanked it away from them out of nothing but

<v Speaker 1>pure greed. But the Saudis wanted it for twenty twenty

<v Speaker 1>seven because that coincides with the country's three hundredth anniversary

<v Speaker 1>celebration since it was founded in the year seventeen twenty seven,

<v Speaker 1>and they wanted a number of special events that year.

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania was going to be one of them. Now there

<v Speaker 1>was a rumor floating around that maybe they would do

<v Speaker 1>two WrestleManias that year, you know, with the idea of

<v Speaker 1>taking the Saudi money and doing one there and then

<v Speaker 1>another one in the North America market. I'm glad that

<v Speaker 1>turned out to be just a rumor, because that would

<v Speaker 1>be a fucking terrible idea. Can you imagine too, WrestleMania

<v Speaker 1>is in one year. We already have that anyway, basically

<v Speaker 1>with SummerSlam. They call it the WrestleMania of the Summer.

<v Speaker 1>They do them in giant stadiums. Now, they're two nights,

<v Speaker 1>just like WrestleMania. What the fuck do we need a

<v Speaker 1>second WrestleMania for? That would be awful. I got a

<v Speaker 1>question once, not that long ago, but well, what if

<v Speaker 1>they were to do it WrestleMania two style, and you

<v Speaker 1>have one night in Saudi and you have one night

<v Speaker 1>in the States. First of all, there's a reason they

<v Speaker 1>haven't done that since wrestle Media two. Okay, that was

<v Speaker 1>in nineteen eighty six, and they have not done anything

<v Speaker 1>really like that on that scale since then. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>WrestleMania now is on such a bigger scale.

<v Speaker 2>But that's a logistical nightmare. Number one.

<v Speaker 1>Number two Saudi Arabia is not paying two or three

<v Speaker 1>hundred million dollars for half a WrestleMania, so that was

<v Speaker 1>never gonna happen either. But the plan is to build

<v Speaker 1>all of the usual events around this one, including SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>Raw the Hall of Fame. They were also encouraging during

<v Speaker 1>the event. They were encouraging American citizens, all their American

<v Speaker 1>fans to fly in for the show. And I'm sure

<v Speaker 1>there are some who will, most will not. A lot

<v Speaker 1>of fans may not even be able to afford it.

<v Speaker 1>Can you imagine how much those ticket prices are going

<v Speaker 1>to be Wait until I talk about that later. What

<v Speaker 1>Mark Shapiro had to say this week about ticket prices.

<v Speaker 1>It's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better.

<v Speaker 1>But look, none of this is surprising. They have been

<v Speaker 1>in business with the Saudis for seven years now. They're

<v Speaker 1>said to be pulling in fifty million dollars for every

<v Speaker 1>show that they do there. They just opened an office

<v Speaker 1>in Riod. This was the next natural progression of the relationship.

<v Speaker 1>And I'm happy for my Saudi listeners who get to

<v Speaker 1>go to a rect Maia for the first time.

<v Speaker 2>You know, whenever there's like a big Saudi show.

<v Speaker 1>There's a handful of people like correspond with You've seen

<v Speaker 1>some of the sound up sides that some of the

<v Speaker 1>Saudi shows, So they have some hardcore fans over there,

<v Speaker 1>and so for them, I'm sure they're excited to get

<v Speaker 1>a WrestleMania for the first time. And at least I'll

<v Speaker 1>be able to cover the show a lot earlier in

<v Speaker 1>the day than I normally would.

<v Speaker 2>That's a plus.

<v Speaker 1>What is that going to be a one o'clock Eastern start?

<v Speaker 1>Probably that's usually around the time those shows start over here.

<v Speaker 1>But I am already dreading the stories about what big

<v Speaker 1>stars they're going to try to coax out of the

<v Speaker 1>retirement home for this show. It's already starting. Meltzer says

<v Speaker 1>the Saudis are pushing for Dwayne the Rock Johnson to

<v Speaker 1>wrestle in one of the main events against either Roman

<v Speaker 1>Reigns or Cody Rhodes. I guess Meltzer's got those sweet

<v Speaker 1>Saudi connections, because he says the negotiations with Rock are

<v Speaker 1>advancing and they believe the deal is close to being finalized,

<v Speaker 1>although he admits he's not been able to confirm any

<v Speaker 1>of this with those in WWE, but The impression that

<v Speaker 1>he got is that the final payment for the show

<v Speaker 1>would be affected by whether or not they get Rock

<v Speaker 1>in the main event for that show, and he would

<v Speaker 1>be paid, and I'm sure he would be multiple times

<v Speaker 1>that of any pro wrestler for any event in the

<v Speaker 1>history of the world. Now, the general entertainment authority is

<v Speaker 1>said to want a packed show with megastars, so naturally,

<v Speaker 1>there's been talk about a lot of big names. He's

<v Speaker 1>been talk about The Undertaker wrestling. There's been talking about

<v Speaker 1>Sean Michaels wrestling. There's talk about Stone Cold Steve Austin

<v Speaker 1>wrestling on the show. He'll be sixty two years old

<v Speaker 1>by that point. Austin doesn't strike me as the kind

<v Speaker 1>of guy that's coming back just for the payday. His

<v Speaker 1>pride will not allow it if he doesn't think that

<v Speaker 1>he can go in there and have a good match.

<v Speaker 1>And maybe he does, but I get the sense with

<v Speaker 1>him it's about more than just money. He spent nineteen

<v Speaker 1>years in retirement before they finally convinced him to get

<v Speaker 1>back in the ring, and even then they wouldn't announce

<v Speaker 1>the match in advance. You don't think he could have

<v Speaker 1>made untold millions of dollars during those nineteen years for

<v Speaker 1>a comeback match against somebody like a CM Punk or

<v Speaker 1>a brock Lesner, and he chose not to. They were

<v Speaker 1>right outside his home this year in Vegas and all

<v Speaker 1>he did was ride his ATV to the ring and

<v Speaker 1>nearly kill some people. So I don't know if he's

<v Speaker 1>going to have a match on that show or not.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure there are fans that would love to see

<v Speaker 1>him in CM Punk in a match after all these years.

<v Speaker 1>Sewn Michaels, he just said that he's getting both knees

<v Speaker 1>replaced in about a month. He's getting ready for that

<v Speaker 1>sweet Saudi pay day. Point is we don't need to

<v Speaker 1>be going backwards and flooding the card with old guys

<v Speaker 1>who don't need to be in the ring anymore. So

<v Speaker 1>you have a lot of fans upset for a variety

<v Speaker 1>of different reasons, all of which have been documented at

<v Speaker 1>nauseum over the years. Again, this is not new. I

<v Speaker 1>mean they've been working with the Saudis and having events

<v Speaker 1>there now for over seven years. Like I said, this

<v Speaker 1>was the next obvious progression of that relationship. I think

<v Speaker 1>where I think is really sad is that it really

<v Speaker 1>does now more so than ever when it comes to

<v Speaker 1>an event like WrestleMania, it really just does come down

<v Speaker 1>to the dollars and cents. I liked it when there

<v Speaker 1>was some more variety. You spread WrestleMania around to other

<v Speaker 1>states and places, and there's plenty of states here in

<v Speaker 1>the US that have never gotten to WrestleMania before, and

<v Speaker 1>so you bounce around from place to place, and now

<v Speaker 1>it really just comes down to the almighty dollar and

<v Speaker 1>nothing else. That's why they literally announced the show for

<v Speaker 1>New Orleans and then yanked it so they could go

<v Speaker 1>back and run Vegas for a second year in a row.

<v Speaker 1>A pure cash grab money play, nothing else, like, nothing

<v Speaker 1>else factored into this decision. That was the only reason

<v Speaker 1>they did what they did. And it makes you wonder

<v Speaker 1>if they're being blown away by the money that they

<v Speaker 1>are being paid for this Saudi show in twenty twenty seven.

<v Speaker 1>Let's just say Saudi Arabia said, you know what, we

<v Speaker 1>want WrestleMania again in twenty twenty eight, or we want

<v Speaker 1>it back in twenty twenty nine, and here's how much

<v Speaker 1>we're gonna pay you.

<v Speaker 2>We're gonna up, We're gonna up the offer.

<v Speaker 1>We're gonna pay you another fifty million dollars on top

<v Speaker 1>of what we paid you last time.

<v Speaker 2>What do you think TKO would do?

<v Speaker 1>They would drop everything and say, sure, we may get

<v Speaker 1>you know, Saudi Mania every other year going forward, and

<v Speaker 1>that would be terrible because I think that there should

<v Speaker 1>be more variety in it. Obviously, there's gonna be a

<v Speaker 1>lot of fans over in Europe and over in the

<v Speaker 1>UK who were very upset after they were teased a

<v Speaker 1>few years ago at the Prospect by John Cena money

<v Speaker 1>in the bank, standing in the middle of the ring

<v Speaker 1>and telling the fans, let your voices be heard if

<v Speaker 1>you want WrestleMania to come to London for the first time.

<v Speaker 1>And those people went nuts. They did exactly what he

<v Speaker 1>told them to do. They let their voices be heard.

<v Speaker 1>Your voices don't matter. Your voices mean shit unless you're

<v Speaker 1>gonna cut them a check for two hundred and fifty

<v Speaker 1>million dollars. Your voices do not matter, is what they're

<v Speaker 1>telling you. And I think that's sad. But I'll tell

<v Speaker 1>you what this does do. It opens up a huge

<v Speaker 1>opportunity for someone like aw to step in and run

<v Speaker 1>their own show that night. Now that WrestleMania is airing

<v Speaker 1>in the daytime hours. Here right, here's Tony kN chance

<v Speaker 1>to do a little counterprogramming of his own and plan

<v Speaker 1>a big event stateside over WrestleMania weekend, not head to

<v Speaker 1>head because that would be obviously suicide for them, but

<v Speaker 1>in the space where WrestleMania would normally be airing, and

<v Speaker 1>do it here. Now, he's not going to be able

<v Speaker 1>to steal headlines away from WWE because it's going to

<v Speaker 1>be all about WrestleMania for the first time coming to

<v Speaker 1>Saudi Arabia, and it's still WrestleMania at the end of

<v Speaker 1>the day. But whatever fans would normally attend WrestleMania that

<v Speaker 1>won't be that year. I'm not saying all of them

<v Speaker 1>would come, but there's a lot of fans that would

<v Speaker 1>attend a big wrestling show that weekend. And if he

<v Speaker 1>wanted to bring other promotions in on the fund, then

<v Speaker 1>so be it, because this is going to have a

<v Speaker 1>negative effect on all of those into pened promotions that

<v Speaker 1>typically build their events around WRESTLEMANI a weekend conventions like

<v Speaker 1>wrestle Con This is where AW can step in to

<v Speaker 1>fill that void and make some money of their own.

<v Speaker 1>I say AW because there's really nobody else, you know,

<v Speaker 1>that could scale something up that big, and that includes TNA,

<v Speaker 1>although if they did, I could see WWE helping TNA

<v Speaker 1>run something stateside to counter that. Yeah, there's no way

<v Speaker 1>they would let them run something that weekend without countering

<v Speaker 1>it somehow, and fair play if they do, you know,

<v Speaker 1>whether it's a TNA event or an NXT event. I'm

<v Speaker 1>just saying, what would normally be a very lucrative weekend

<v Speaker 1>for these other events and these other promotions suddenly isn't

<v Speaker 1>going to be there in twenty twenty seven. So there's

<v Speaker 1>an opportunity for someone else to step in and try

<v Speaker 1>to fill that void even better if they did it

<v Speaker 1>in New Orleans, wouldn't that be something?

<v Speaker 2>Now.

<v Speaker 1>The other big news of the week, and this one

<v Speaker 1>came out of left field. This was surprising, was Andrade

<v Speaker 1>being gone from WWE. He is done. Fight Ful was

<v Speaker 1>the first to report the news on his exit, and

<v Speaker 1>sources within the company confirmed Andrade was released and that

<v Speaker 1>it was the company's call and it was not part

<v Speaker 1>of a mass group of cuts that we hear so

<v Speaker 1>often about. Usually when it comes to WWE cuts, they

<v Speaker 1>usually come in batches.

<v Speaker 2>That was not the case here.

<v Speaker 1>John Alba of Sports Illustrated later reported that it was

<v Speaker 1>not a mutual decision. He had not been backstage at

<v Speaker 1>TV tapings for nearly a month, and multiple talent were

<v Speaker 1>being told Saturday afternoon that he had been let go

<v Speaker 1>and he has already been moved to the alumni section

<v Speaker 1>on WWE dot com. Again, we don't know what we

<v Speaker 1>don't know, but they're making it clear from these reports.

<v Speaker 1>This was not a case where this was just an

<v Speaker 1>Andrade call where he's like, you know what, I don't

<v Speaker 1>want to be here anymore, let me go. This was

<v Speaker 1>something that was initiated by the company, something they felt

<v Speaker 1>that they had to do for some reason, and we

<v Speaker 1>might have some insight into why that is now. Bodyslam

<v Speaker 1>dot Net said that there have been creative and booking

<v Speaker 1>differences between Androde and WWE since his return at the

<v Speaker 1>Royal Rumble in twenty twenty four. Not only that, but

<v Speaker 1>Androde had been unreachable for several weeks before this when

<v Speaker 1>WWE tried to make contact with him.

<v Speaker 2>That is not good.

<v Speaker 1>We haven't seen Androte on television. We haven't seen him

<v Speaker 1>at all since SummerSlam. He and Ray Phoenix were part

<v Speaker 1>of that TLC match for the WWE Tag Team title.

<v Speaker 1>The belief is that he and Phoenix were in line

<v Speaker 1>for the spot against the Wyatt Six that ultimately went

<v Speaker 1>to the Street Profits at Clash in Paris. Because it

<v Speaker 1>was very strange how coming out of SummerSlam, all of

<v Speaker 1>a sudden, this new team they had put together a

<v Speaker 1>few months before, they just vanished. We didn't see Androti

<v Speaker 1>on TV. We didn't even see Ray Phoenix on TV.

<v Speaker 1>I don't believe since this past Friday he had this

<v Speaker 1>tremendous US Title Open Challenge match with Sammy Zain that

<v Speaker 1>was the highlight of the night on smack Down this week.

<v Speaker 1>Phoenix is another one who I would completely understand if

<v Speaker 1>he was frustrated by the way he's been booked in WWE.

<v Speaker 1>But looking at Andrade, I mean, you look at this return.

<v Speaker 1>He came back to the company at the Royal Rumble

<v Speaker 1>last year. He was in last year's Money in the

<v Speaker 1>Bank Ladder match. He was in this year's Money in

<v Speaker 1>the Bank Ladder match. Didn't win either one, but he

<v Speaker 1>was in both of those. He had that great best

<v Speaker 1>of seven series of matches on SmackDown with Carmelo Hayes.

<v Speaker 1>That led to nothing, no title, no big program, nothing

<v Speaker 1>coming out of it. Those two were carrying SmackDown there

<v Speaker 1>for a while. Then he won the speed title, which

<v Speaker 1>I mean, who the hell cares about that? And then

<v Speaker 1>we got the random pairing with him in Ray Phoenix,

<v Speaker 1>another talent that has been underutilized the past few months.

<v Speaker 1>And the problem for Ray Phoenix is that he burned

<v Speaker 1>a bridge with AW on his way out, Andrade did not.

<v Speaker 1>He actually ended things on respectful terms with Tony Kahan.

<v Speaker 1>Tony was the one who actually announced his contract was

<v Speaker 1>expiring during one of their media scrums, and he thanked

<v Speaker 1>him for his work. He said he hopes he could,

<v Speaker 1>you know, work together with.

<v Speaker 2>Him again one day.

<v Speaker 1>One would think the door would be open for a return.

<v Speaker 1>But is it worth it for Tony Khan?

<v Speaker 2>You know?

<v Speaker 1>Andrade is a tremendous talent, but he also strikes me

<v Speaker 1>as someone who will never be fully happy unless he

<v Speaker 1>is either the focus or that he is at least

<v Speaker 1>in that top top mix. And that's just not going

<v Speaker 1>to happen in WWE. And it's not going to happen

<v Speaker 1>in aweither, not with the wealth of talent that they

<v Speaker 1>have over there. You know the way his WWE run

<v Speaker 1>just ended. I don't know why Tony would think a

<v Speaker 1>second run in aw would end any differently than it

<v Speaker 1>did the first time. I also think, and look, I

<v Speaker 1>can't get inside the man's head. This is all still

<v Speaker 1>very fluid. This news only broke yesterday. We haven't heard

<v Speaker 1>from Andrade. We don't know why he ghosted them and

<v Speaker 1>did what he did. But if you remember, he was

<v Speaker 1>one of the Hispanic talents they trotted out there behind

<v Speaker 1>Triple H WrestleMania weekend when they announced that they were

<v Speaker 1>buying Trip and I wonder if he may have also thought,

<v Speaker 1>you know, I could see my future here. He's looking

<v Speaker 1>into his crystal ball and he sees his future. They're

<v Speaker 1>just gonna use me on those shows. They're gonna use

<v Speaker 1>me as one of that core group of talents to

<v Speaker 1>try to break into that market. That's how they see me.

<v Speaker 1>And I don't want to be a part of that.

<v Speaker 1>I don't want that to define my run here. I

<v Speaker 1>don't want that to define who I am. I'm better

<v Speaker 1>than that. Would not at all be surprised if that's

<v Speaker 1>how he honestly felt. And as I am recording this,

<v Speaker 1>I am seeing here that John Albajis posted a new

<v Speaker 1>update on the Sports Illustrated website, So I'll just read

<v Speaker 1>to you from this here.

<v Speaker 2>This is just minutes old.

<v Speaker 1>Multiple sources indicate to the takedown on SI that Andrade

<v Speaker 1>had at least one wellness policy violation during his most

<v Speaker 1>recent WWE run. It is not known how exactly he

<v Speaker 1>was in violation of the policy, or whether or not

<v Speaker 1>he in fact tested positive for a banned substance. It

<v Speaker 1>is also not clear if it directly led to his release,

<v Speaker 1>but it was noted that he was suspended without pay

<v Speaker 1>as a result of it. Initial reports noted that he

<v Speaker 1>had not been backstage at SmackDown as of late and

<v Speaker 1>was not listed on internal rosters. The takedown on SI

<v Speaker 1>can add that he was told to leave a taping

<v Speaker 1>last month and was escorted out of the building. A

<v Speaker 1>high level source asserted this dismissal from the building was

<v Speaker 1>in relation to his most recent suspension and that it

<v Speaker 1>affected major creative plans for his tag team with Ray Phoenix,

<v Speaker 1>which would go to what I mentioned before about them

<v Speaker 1>being in line most likely for a tag team championship

<v Speaker 1>shot body slams. Corey Hayes reported on Saturday Night that

<v Speaker 1>WWE had tried to get in touch with Androde for

<v Speaker 1>several weeks but had been unsuccessful. The takedown on SI

<v Speaker 1>cannot confirm that this at this time, though the incident

<v Speaker 1>at SmackDown was said to have occurred in the middle

<v Speaker 1>of August. While sources indicated that there was at least

<v Speaker 1>one wellness policy violation this year, this would not be

<v Speaker 1>his first with the company. Ww announced in January of

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty that he was suspended for his first violation

<v Speaker 1>of the policy, which resulted in a thirty day suspension.

<v Speaker 1>He would leave WWE the following year jump ship to

<v Speaker 1>AW where he would perform until December of twenty twenty three. There,

<v Speaker 1>he also faced disciplinary action following a backstage incident with

<v Speaker 1>Sammy Gavara. He would return to WWE in twenty twenty four.

<v Speaker 1>It should be noted that WWE has not published any

<v Speaker 1>potential wellness policy violations publicly since the TKO merger in

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty three. As a result, it is unknown how

<v Speaker 1>many there have been, if there have been any outside

<v Speaker 1>of this at all, so that changes things a bit

<v Speaker 1>as far as who to put the onus on here.

<v Speaker 1>If this is true, because if they were having disciplinary

<v Speaker 1>issues with him, and there may well have been creative

<v Speaker 1>frustrations as well, but if they were having disciplinary issues

<v Speaker 1>with him again, if he disappeared on them, and if

<v Speaker 1>he failed a wellness test. Now the first violation is

<v Speaker 1>thirty days, so if this was his second, that would

<v Speaker 1>be sixty days, most likely without pay. So I'd be

<v Speaker 1>very interested to know the timeline of that when that

<v Speaker 1>was being served, If it was in August, if that

<v Speaker 1>was earlier than that, that sounds like it would have

<v Speaker 1>been last month. Then obviously that's not good and you

<v Speaker 1>can't put that on the company if this guy is

<v Speaker 1>failing tests and being suspended. You know, if they have

<v Speaker 1>a policy in place and you violate that policy, then

<v Speaker 1>you're going to get popped. That's the way it works.

<v Speaker 1>So it just it sounds to me like this was

<v Speaker 1>just a combustible relationship in so many different ways, and

<v Speaker 1>we could get into, you know, as far as the

<v Speaker 1>creative aspect of this and where WWE may or may

<v Speaker 1>not have dropped the ball, because in many ways they did.

<v Speaker 1>You know, he's been back for a while now, it's

<v Speaker 1>not And if this stuff has happened relatively recently, it's

<v Speaker 1>not as if they've taken full advantage of what they

<v Speaker 1>had in him prior to this. I mean, if you

<v Speaker 1>look at the run that Andrade has had in WWE

<v Speaker 1>this second time around. Again, you know, as far as Andrade,

<v Speaker 1>I talked a lot about him when he first came

<v Speaker 1>back and how I thought it was a mistake to

<v Speaker 1>not put a mouthpiece with him. The most successful run

<v Speaker 1>that this man had in all the years he worked

<v Speaker 1>for WWE, because he was in NXT for a number

<v Speaker 1>of years before he ever got called up to the

<v Speaker 1>main roster, and on the main roster he held the

<v Speaker 1>US title during that first run. That was basically the

<v Speaker 1>highlight of his run. But the highlight of his WWE

<v Speaker 1>run overall was that run from NXT Black and Gold,

<v Speaker 1>and they had him paired off with Zelena Vega, and

<v Speaker 1>they made a great pairing and he had some tremendous matches.

<v Speaker 1>He was the NXT champion. He felt like a big

<v Speaker 1>fish in a small pond. It was that kind of situation,

<v Speaker 1>but he was the top guy, and I think in

<v Speaker 1>his head he probably envisioned something like that on the

<v Speaker 1>main roster, where eventually he would be the champion. He

<v Speaker 1>would be the guy, because again, it was built around

<v Speaker 1>him there for a while in NXT, and it was

<v Speaker 1>a very successful run. It was a very successful pairing.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know, for the life of me why they

<v Speaker 1>did not attempt to recreate that on the main roster.

<v Speaker 1>You had Zelena there, You could have done it with Zelena,

<v Speaker 1>you could have had somebody else in that role. But

<v Speaker 1>to just kind of send him out there and again

<v Speaker 1>on the microphone. His verbal skills promos, it's not his

<v Speaker 1>strong suit. He still struggles with that. That's a very

<v Speaker 1>important quality in WWE. They put a great emphasis on that.

<v Speaker 1>Look at all the people that are on top right now,

<v Speaker 1>by and large, By and large, right they're able to

<v Speaker 1>go out there and cut promos. There's a lot of

<v Speaker 1>back and forth on the microphone. That's not his strong suit.

<v Speaker 1>That was why I said, pair him off with somebody,

<v Speaker 1>and they never did, and I think that was a

<v Speaker 1>big mistake. So there's a lot of blame to go

<v Speaker 1>around here. You could absolutely blame WWE for not doing

<v Speaker 1>more with him, for not finding better ways to utilize

<v Speaker 1>him on TV. Absolutely, But it goes both ways here.

<v Speaker 1>And if these stories are accurate, and you've got one

<v Speaker 1>story saying he was UNREA for weeks. You know, if

<v Speaker 1>your employer can't reach you, and then you know these

<v Speaker 1>other stories about him failing a wellness test and being

<v Speaker 1>escorted out of the building, and it's a disciplinary thing

<v Speaker 1>ultimately that falls on the talent. You know, you can

<v Speaker 1>talk about all the ways WWE should have done this

<v Speaker 1>and should have.

<v Speaker 2>Done that and dropped the ball. It doesn't mean anything.

<v Speaker 1>If you have somebody who is having disciplinary issues behind

<v Speaker 1>the scenes and failing tests and getting suspended, that supersedes

<v Speaker 1>everything else that falls on the talent.

<v Speaker 2>That doesn't fall on WWE. But this just.

<v Speaker 1>Sounded like a toxic relationship that was not going to

<v Speaker 1>work out. You cannot be ghosting your employer. You cannot

<v Speaker 1>be you know, failing tests or causing issues behind the scenes.

<v Speaker 1>And that's actually a great point from earlier. I forgotten

<v Speaker 1>about that backstage incident with him and Sammy Gavara and

<v Speaker 1>aw so, I mean it's not as if that there

<v Speaker 1>haven't been some issues with him in the past. But yeah,

<v Speaker 1>you can't be doing that stuff and expect the company

<v Speaker 1>to under the rug or ignore it or push you

<v Speaker 1>at a high level. If let's say he is unhappy

<v Speaker 1>maybe with his spot on the show. All of these

<v Speaker 1>things can be true. By the way, he could have

<v Speaker 1>been creatively frustrated, but also be failing a test or

<v Speaker 1>you know, having other problems that necessitated that the company

<v Speaker 1>you know, send him home, Because I mean, everybody's got goals.

<v Speaker 1>Everybody you know has an ego to an extent, some

<v Speaker 1>more than others. You know, he obviously is very proud

<v Speaker 1>of his work, as he should be, and he's a

<v Speaker 1>tremendous wrestler. But this is all sounding more like an

<v Speaker 1>Andrade thing than anything else.

<v Speaker 2>And I'm not.

<v Speaker 1>Sure that if he were to go back to AW

<v Speaker 1>and Tony Kah welcomed him back with open arms, I'm

<v Speaker 1>not sure why anybody would believe that things would end

<v Speaker 1>up any differently than they did before. And if he

<v Speaker 1>doesn't go back there, I don't know where else he

<v Speaker 1>would go. You know, I don't know what his goals

<v Speaker 1>and aspirations are. I don't know, I don't know where

<v Speaker 1>his head is at on this, So it'll be very

<v Speaker 1>interesting to see if he comments on it and where

<v Speaker 1>he does end up. The WWE's first ever Wrestle Palooza

<v Speaker 1>is coming up this Saturday from the game Bridge Field

<v Speaker 1>House in Indianapolis. It'll be the first pl to air

<v Speaker 1>on the new ESPN Unlimited service, not on the main

<v Speaker 1>ESPN linear network. At least as of now, it is

<v Speaker 1>not set to air on the actual ESPN channel, although

<v Speaker 1>future shows might at least part of them, with the

<v Speaker 1>idea that for the last hour or two you would

<v Speaker 1>then have to switch over to the app to watch

<v Speaker 1>the rest of it. They've got ten thousand tickets out

<v Speaker 1>for the show so far, but they're not sold out.

<v Speaker 1>They've even cut the prices of the least expensive tickets

<v Speaker 1>from two hundred and twenty two dollars per ticket to

<v Speaker 1>one hundred and ninety two dollars per ticket. Not a

<v Speaker 1>huge decrease, but the fact that they're cutting prices at

<v Speaker 1>all is very Unlike WWE IT shows, they're not moving

<v Speaker 1>as quickly as they would have hoped. They're currently set

<v Speaker 1>up for over twelve thousand according to wrestle Tics, in

<v Speaker 1>a building that fits more than seventeen thousand for basketball,

<v Speaker 1>and I'm sure they'll end up getting twelve or thirty

<v Speaker 1>teen thousand one game day. And on the subject of

<v Speaker 1>ticket prices, Mark Shapiro, the chief operating officer for TKO,

<v Speaker 1>made some news this week with his comments at the

<v Speaker 1>annual Goldman Sachs Communicopia and Technology Conference, saying the WWE

<v Speaker 1>is not where the UFC is yet.

<v Speaker 2>On ticket yield. We have work to do there.

<v Speaker 1>He says, Yes, they don't believe ticket prices are high enough.

<v Speaker 1>They may be going even higher soon. He said, we

<v Speaker 1>know we have a lot of room there because Vince

<v Speaker 1>McMahon was primarily pricing tickets for families and wasn't totally

<v Speaker 1>focused on maxing the opportunity there. Now that we've seen

<v Speaker 1>what we can do with UFC, we're replicating that in

<v Speaker 1>terms of ticket yield and holding back and advanced sales

<v Speaker 1>when it comes to the WWE side, and it's working

<v Speaker 1>out really well. I was not familiar with the term

<v Speaker 1>ticket yield. It is a pricing strategy that takes into

<v Speaker 1>account multiple factors that affect pricing and demand, and it's

<v Speaker 1>basically it's a measure of the average revenue generated per

<v Speaker 1>ticket sold with the goal of selling all inventory for

<v Speaker 1>a given event at the right mix of prices. So basically,

<v Speaker 1>you divide the total income from ticket sales by the

<v Speaker 1>number of tickets sold, and that gives you your ticket yield.

<v Speaker 1>Shapiro has said previously that TKO sees tremendous upside in

<v Speaker 1>increasing ticket prices, and an example that he used on

<v Speaker 1>Wednesday was UFC shattering previous records to become the highest

<v Speaker 1>grossing event in the history of Chicago's United Center site.

<v Speaker 1>Fees continue to be a key focus of TKO, which

<v Speaker 1>Shapiro's saying that they need to sell out their inventory

<v Speaker 1>of UFC numbered events in addition to wwepls before moving

<v Speaker 1>on to UFC Fight Nights, WWE Raw and SmackDown events.

<v Speaker 1>He said they are talking to Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit, London, Paris,

<v Speaker 1>and that there are no shortage of countries that want

<v Speaker 1>to see them bring their show to town. He said

<v Speaker 1>that they will continue to maximum those opportunities with both

<v Speaker 1>in kind deals, goods, and services, but that the most

<v Speaker 1>important to me, he says, is cash, cash kills. He

<v Speaker 1>also had a warning of sorts for places that are

<v Speaker 1>successful when WWE or UFC come to town, especially for

<v Speaker 1>the smaller events. Using UFC Fight Nights as an example,

<v Speaker 1>he said, if we have a Saint Louis going up

<v Speaker 1>against the Des Moines, Iowa, and you want us back there,

<v Speaker 1>and you've broken records and sold out both your arenas.

<v Speaker 1>You have to pay for us to come back, or

<v Speaker 1>else we'll take it to another town. And that goes

<v Speaker 1>for nxt raw and SmackDown on the WWE side. You know,

<v Speaker 1>it's not often that someone says, Vince McMahon, the man

<v Speaker 1>who stomped out countless territories when he was expanding nationally,

<v Speaker 1>wasn't ruthless enough when it comes to business. According to Shapiro,

<v Speaker 1>Vince wasn't pricing his tickets high enough because he wanted

<v Speaker 1>to keep it affordable for families. And that might be true,

<v Speaker 1>but also keep in mind wwea not doing the kind

<v Speaker 1>of business that they're doing now. Three or four years ago,

<v Speaker 1>when Vince was still in charge, they were doing well,

<v Speaker 1>but they weren't doing this well. Given the chance to

<v Speaker 1>charge more, if the demand was there, I don't think

<v Speaker 1>he would have hesitated to raise prices at least a

<v Speaker 1>little bit. I don't think he would have lowered them,

<v Speaker 1>but I do think that he probably would have been

<v Speaker 1>more cautious about pricing people out of coming to a

<v Speaker 1>WWE event. TKO doesn't care about that. All they care

<v Speaker 1>about is maximizing the hear and now what they are

<v Speaker 1>doing is they are pricing out a generation of fans

<v Speaker 1>who are simply going to stop going to the shows,

<v Speaker 1>or they won't ever start going to the shows right

<v Speaker 1>when they otherwise might have because the cost of attending

<v Speaker 1>these shows is too prohibitive for them. And I've talked

<v Speaker 1>about this in the past. You know, for all the

<v Speaker 1>fans who have fallen off or are going to fall

<v Speaker 1>off as a result, or maybe they'll watch, but they

<v Speaker 1>simply won't pay for tickets anymore because they either just

<v Speaker 1>can't or they just can't justify some of these prices.

<v Speaker 1>I'm very curious in the next five years, three to

<v Speaker 1>five years, how different, if at all, the WWE audience looks.

<v Speaker 1>I think their audience, just in terms of who is

<v Speaker 1>paying to come to these shows and what kind of

<v Speaker 1>fans they are, is radically going to change. I think

<v Speaker 1>the fan base is going to look different if they

<v Speaker 1>continue down this path. And maybe for them that's a

<v Speaker 1>good thing, but I think it's just whether you think

<v Speaker 1>it's a good thing or a bad thing is a

<v Speaker 1>subjective thing. But I think it's going to be very different.

<v Speaker 1>I think that's going to be a bad thing, but

<v Speaker 1>obviously for their bottom line they feel differently.

<v Speaker 2>But there is a risk.

<v Speaker 1>That the more they play around with these prices, you're

<v Speaker 1>going to take it one step too far and you

<v Speaker 1>are going to chase away a lot of fans. They

<v Speaker 1>obviously haven't reached that point yet. They're still selling a

<v Speaker 1>ton of tickets. But the dam is going to burst

<v Speaker 1>at some point, and when it does, the ones on

<v Speaker 1>the hot seat are not going to be Ari Emmanuel

<v Speaker 1>and Mark Shapiro. It's going to be people like Paul

<v Speaker 1>Leveck and Bruce Pritchard. I wouldn't even say Nick. I

<v Speaker 1>think it'll be the ones who were sitting at the gorilla.

<v Speaker 2>Position every week.

<v Speaker 1>Those are gonna be the first heads to roll. Because

<v Speaker 1>if you're Triple H, you know, people talk about how

<v Speaker 1>WWE is overdoing it on the moments and the return pops.

<v Speaker 1>It's just about the returns. Right this year especially, it

<v Speaker 1>really is all about the moments. Now, well, eventually you

<v Speaker 1>burn through all of those moments and there's no one

<v Speaker 1>left to trot out there. But it makes sense why

<v Speaker 1>Triple H would be doing it so much, because it works,

<v Speaker 1>and because he's probably under a lot of pressure to

<v Speaker 1>keep delivering on those moments and keep those buildings packed.

<v Speaker 1>You know, But when the car starts to slowly roll

<v Speaker 1>back down the mountain in reverse and you run out

<v Speaker 1>of big moments, what happens then? Right, he must feel

<v Speaker 1>like he's under the gun in a way that he

<v Speaker 1>never was before, because this is no longer a family business.

<v Speaker 1>This is a TKO business, and the minute business begins

<v Speaker 1>to falter, he's gonna find himself on the hot seat

<v Speaker 1>as the one responsible for turning things around because he's

<v Speaker 1>the chief content officer. I don't know that they see

<v Speaker 1>him as indispensable and the way that they see Dana

<v Speaker 1>White as being indispensable for the UFC. Dana White and

<v Speaker 1>UFC are synonymous. They are one and the same in

<v Speaker 1>the way that Vince McMahon was always one and the

<v Speaker 1>same with WWE, and he still would be one and

<v Speaker 1>the same with WWE. He would still be running WWE

<v Speaker 1>if he wasn't such a sliine ball. But Dana White

<v Speaker 1>is clearly who he is trying to model himself after.

<v Speaker 1>He's trying to be to WWE what Dana White is

<v Speaker 1>to the UFC. That's why he's front and center all

<v Speaker 1>the time on these big shows and on WWE Unreal

<v Speaker 1>and he just did Tony Hinchclip's show, Kill Tony. You know,

<v Speaker 1>he's really putting himself out there. The more he does

<v Speaker 1>stuff like that, the more he sort of becomes one

<v Speaker 1>with the company. But you talk about ruthless, these people

<v Speaker 1>are ruthless. And Triple H is not Vince McMahon. The

<v Speaker 1>minute he slips up, the wolves are gonna circle. I'm

<v Speaker 1>not saying it's gonna to be an instant thing, and

<v Speaker 1>I don't even know who you would replace him with,

<v Speaker 1>but there's always a scapego Remember that this bubble is

<v Speaker 1>bound to burst at some point, and when it does,

<v Speaker 1>he'd better watch out. But when you listen to these

<v Speaker 1>TKO people, one thing that is very clear to me,

<v Speaker 1>and this is true of WWE in general, is that

<v Speaker 1>they take their audience for granted.

<v Speaker 2>They do.

<v Speaker 1>They take the fans for granted. And when you take

<v Speaker 1>the fans for granted, and you think that they'll always

<v Speaker 1>be there no matter what, you end up pushing too

<v Speaker 1>hard and suddenly a lot of them won't be there

<v Speaker 1>anymore in the way that you thought they would be.

<v Speaker 1>At that same conference, Shapiro also said they hope Wrestle

<v Speaker 1>Palooza is an annual, recurring franchise for the company and

<v Speaker 1>one that is both on par with two of their

<v Speaker 1>notable annual ples and becomes part of their Big four

<v Speaker 1>events of.

<v Speaker 2>The WWE year.

<v Speaker 1>He said, Hopefully Wrestle Palooza is a winner and we

<v Speaker 1>can bring that back annually. That could be a marketing

<v Speaker 1>bonanza for us if we do that right, adding that

<v Speaker 1>Paulovec is spending day and night creatively making what we

<v Speaker 1>think it can be another wrestle Mania or another Summer Slam.

<v Speaker 1>He said, the Royal Rumble is just below that level

<v Speaker 1>and they feel wressel Palooza could be in that quadrant.

<v Speaker 1>So all the people making fun of the wrestle Poloza name,

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<v Speaker 1>As for the Wrestle Palooza card itself, We've got five

<v Speaker 1>matches official so far, with one raw and one SmackDown

<v Speaker 1>left to go as I am recording this, so they

<v Speaker 1>may add one more. This being a big show for

<v Speaker 1>them and all. I thought maybe aj Styles challenging Dominic

<v Speaker 1>Mysterio for the Intercontinental title might be a possibility, depending

<v Speaker 1>on what happened at the end of World's Collide. There

<v Speaker 1>was no indication of that happening. I did see the

<v Speaker 1>End of Worlds Collide. I have not had a chance

<v Speaker 1>to watch anything more than that from that show given

<v Speaker 1>everything that's been going on this weekend that I mentioned earlier,

<v Speaker 1>But we'll see again. We'll see if they add one

<v Speaker 1>more match. I think a six match card sounds about right.

<v Speaker 1>But we have the USSOS taking on Bronson Reid and

<v Speaker 1>bron Breaker. This will be the first match that the

<v Speaker 1>USSOS have had together as a tag team since March

<v Speaker 1>against Austin Theory and Grayson Waller. That was the night

<v Speaker 1>that they advertised that Jay was going to have a

<v Speaker 1>mystery partner, which just ended up being his brother. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know why they didn't just advertise and usso's reunion

<v Speaker 1>in advance if that's what they were going to do,

<v Speaker 1>but they're doing it now and Jay has been at

<v Speaker 1>war with La Knight. The two of them just do

<v Speaker 1>not get along. Night actually came to their aid at

<v Speaker 1>the beginning of the show on Monday, but then at

<v Speaker 1>the end Jay speared him the ungrateful prick that he is,

<v Speaker 1>and now that he's made an enemy out of La Knight,

<v Speaker 1>I think there's a good chance that he gets involved

<v Speaker 1>here and factors into this finish, which then leads to

<v Speaker 1>a win for the Vision Breaker. And Reed lost at Summerslim,

<v Speaker 1>they should not be losing here too, although if he does,

<v Speaker 1>you know, if he does get involved between Jay attacking

<v Speaker 1>Night on Monday and getting some booze and that if

<v Speaker 1>Night cost the USOS the win here, that gives the

<v Speaker 1>win to Seth's crew, which is not going to make

<v Speaker 1>the fans happy. Both these guys are going to come

<v Speaker 1>out of this less over with the crowd than they

<v Speaker 1>were before, So I don't know that that's very helpful,

<v Speaker 1>But that's where I think this is headed. Eosky and

<v Speaker 1>Stephanie Vicerre they meet one on one to crown a

<v Speaker 1>brand new women's world champion. The title has been vacant

<v Speaker 1>for a month now. It's been longer than that since

<v Speaker 1>Stephanie had stepped into the ring. She has been a

<v Speaker 1>ghost on these shows really ever since she won that

<v Speaker 1>Battle Royal at Evolution. She only wrestled three times on

<v Speaker 1>TV after that, nothing for the entire month of August.

<v Speaker 1>All of that was in July that Dave Meltzer reported

<v Speaker 1>that the reason for her absence is that she was

<v Speaker 1>out dealing with a minor injury. But in an Inner

<v Speaker 1>You with Adrian Hernandez this week, she said that she

<v Speaker 1>sees things on social media sometimes that aren't real. No injuries.

<v Speaker 1>I'm ready for raw next Monday, So no, no injuries.

<v Speaker 1>She didn't exactly deny that she was dealing with an

<v Speaker 1>injury before, only that right now there is no injury

<v Speaker 1>and she is ready to go. Clearly she's ready to

<v Speaker 1>go because she's wrestling on NXT this Tuesday. I'll get

<v Speaker 1>to that in a little bit. But she missed the

<v Speaker 1>contract signing segment last Monday. There was supposed to be

<v Speaker 1>a contract signing with her at EO. Adam Pierce told

<v Speaker 1>EO that it was canceled because Stephanie was unavailable. Was

<v Speaker 1>it a case where she was unavailable because they decided

<v Speaker 1>to do one tomorrow for another match on the pl E.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know. We'll find out tomorrow. But she's good

<v Speaker 1>to go now. That's all that matters this right here,

<v Speaker 1>this could be the sleeper match of the night. In

<v Speaker 1>this match, we all win. That's how I look at it.

<v Speaker 1>But I think EO Sky should win the title back.

<v Speaker 1>I think she will win the championship back. Stephanie has

<v Speaker 1>just missed too much time, you know. Whatever the reason was,

<v Speaker 1>they have not been able to adequately build her up

<v Speaker 1>for this moment when she wins the championship. At some

<v Speaker 1>point she should be more established, and I think to

<v Speaker 1>throw it on her here would be a mistake. Now,

<v Speaker 1>the wild card here is Osca, who has been beefing

<v Speaker 1>with anybody who even comes near EO, including Rhea Ripley,

<v Speaker 1>including Nikki Bella, and Oscar says that she will be

<v Speaker 1>in EO's corner or she's gonna watch her back in

<v Speaker 1>some way for this match, even though EO has said

<v Speaker 1>I don't want your help. I don't need your help.

<v Speaker 1>If Osca is out there or Osca comes out there,

<v Speaker 1>this could tilt either way. As far as the outcome,

<v Speaker 1>this could tilt either way. It all depends on what

<v Speaker 1>they want coming out of the show. Do they want

<v Speaker 1>Oscar to accidentally cost EO the title? I mean that

<v Speaker 1>would really give them a reason to feud. Or do

<v Speaker 1>they want Osca to help EO even though EO said

<v Speaker 1>I don't want your help. I could do this on

<v Speaker 1>my own, and they use Osca's interference as an out

<v Speaker 1>Stephanie when she loses. That's what I think they're gonna do,

<v Speaker 1>and EO Sky will be the next Women's World Champion

<v Speaker 1>c Im Punk and aj Lee against Seth Rollins and

<v Speaker 1>Becky Lynch. How do you continue the Punk and Rollins

<v Speaker 1>feud without doing another singles match? How do you keep

<v Speaker 1>it fresh? You call in the wives. That's what they've done.

<v Speaker 1>Aj Lee's return on SmackDown was one of the last

<v Speaker 1>big return moments that WWE has left, certainly on the

<v Speaker 1>women's side. It was a big deal. And then she

<v Speaker 1>returned to Raw for the first time in ten years

<v Speaker 1>last Monday. She had the Intercontinental title with her that

<v Speaker 1>she stole from Becky the previous Friday. Becky wanted it back,

<v Speaker 1>Seth tried to get it back for her. Punk came

<v Speaker 1>out and this all led to aj offering to give

<v Speaker 1>it back if they agreed to this mixtag team match

<v Speaker 1>at Wressel Palooza, and so here we are tomorrow night.

<v Speaker 1>They're doing one last face to face with all four

<v Speaker 1>of them in the ring. This is one of the

<v Speaker 1>two big attractions for this show. One of the main

<v Speaker 1>selling points is aj Lee's first match in over ten years,

<v Speaker 1>and I think she wins her first match back by

<v Speaker 1>pinning Becky Lynch. That's how you keep the Punkin Rollin stuff.

<v Speaker 1>Alive for another match eventually. And also how you get

<v Speaker 1>to AJ challenging Becky for the Intercontinental title at Crown

<v Speaker 1>Jewel next month, because if she pins the champion here,

<v Speaker 1>then she should be next in line.

<v Speaker 2>For a title shot. That's how it should always work.

<v Speaker 1>So I say the Vision gets the win over the USOS,

<v Speaker 1>but they lose this one. You know, after Punk got

<v Speaker 1>cash in on at SummerSlam, this should be his revenge.

<v Speaker 1>It's time now for him to come back and get

<v Speaker 1>one over on Seth, even if it's his wife who

<v Speaker 1>does it ultimately. But it's smart too because as someone

<v Speaker 1>that hasn't wrestled in a decade, AJ in a tag

<v Speaker 1>match means that she doesn't have to work the entire match.

<v Speaker 1>They can build, you know, to her spots. I'm looking

<v Speaker 1>forward to this one. I think it just it makes

<v Speaker 1>the dynamic a lot more interesting than it would be

<v Speaker 1>if it was just another Seth in Punk match. I'm

<v Speaker 1>curious what AJ is going to look like in the ring.

<v Speaker 1>Becky's had some really good matches this year. I think

<v Speaker 1>this has the potential to be an excellent match. I

<v Speaker 1>am looking forward to this, but I have Cimpunk and

<v Speaker 1>aj Lee going Over. Cody Rhodes is back. He's defending

<v Speaker 1>his WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre. As expected, Cody came

<v Speaker 1>back at the end of SmackDown on Friday. After Drew

<v Speaker 1>beat Randy Orton, Cody said he would see McIntyre at

<v Speaker 1>Wressell Palooza. The only question now is do we see

<v Speaker 1>Randy Orton involved here in some way, shape or form.

<v Speaker 1>Does he play some kind of role in the finish

<v Speaker 1>of this match. You know, Cody won the title back

<v Speaker 1>from John Cena at Summerslim. This is his first title

<v Speaker 1>defense and it's only his second match since Summerslim. He's

<v Speaker 1>coming off a month long absence. I'm not opposed to

<v Speaker 1>shaking and doing a title change here, but I just

<v Speaker 1>don't think that's realistic. I don't see WWE doing that.

<v Speaker 1>So I'm gonna say Cody Rhods retains. Maybe they do

<v Speaker 1>the finish in a way they should do the Actually,

<v Speaker 1>they should do the finish in a way that Larrence

<v Speaker 1>a rematch at Crown Jewel and they run it back

<v Speaker 1>one more time. So maybe Cody doesn't win, but maybe

<v Speaker 1>Drew doesn't win either. They could also do some sort

<v Speaker 1>of a no contest type finish, which I think they

<v Speaker 1>could get away with because this match is not closing

<v Speaker 1>the show. Normally, the WWEE Championship match would be the

<v Speaker 1>main event. That is not going to be the case

<v Speaker 1>on this show, so they could get away with some

<v Speaker 1>sort of non finish if they wanted to then build

<v Speaker 1>to a rematch a Crown Jewel because Drew McIntyre as

<v Speaker 1>number one contender should not be a one and done.

<v Speaker 1>You have to extend this to at least one more match.

<v Speaker 1>But I just don't see Cody Rhods losing here. And

<v Speaker 1>in what has been confirmed as the main event of

<v Speaker 1>the show, John Cena goes one on one for the

<v Speaker 1>fire time with one of his greatest rivals, Brock Lesner.

<v Speaker 1>They brought Brock back at SummerSlam to randomly attack Sena,

<v Speaker 1>which he did again last week. He gave him two

<v Speaker 1>more at Five's on Friday, there was no John Cena,

<v Speaker 1>but Brock showed up again looking for Sina. You know,

<v Speaker 1>Brock really is one of those Neanderthal caveman types, because

<v Speaker 1>if he was smart, he'd have known that Sina said

<v Speaker 1>on SmackDown last week, which by the way, Brock was

<v Speaker 1>there too. If he had paid attention to what John

<v Speaker 1>Cena had to say. Sina was very clear when he

<v Speaker 1>said that was his final SmackDown. So without Sena there,

<v Speaker 1>Brock came out and instead he did comedy with our Truth,

<v Speaker 1>and then he split his pants at the end of

<v Speaker 1>the segment, and then he danced a little Irish jig

<v Speaker 1>and he slapped hands with the fans on his way

<v Speaker 1>out while he was laughing. This is how they chose

<v Speaker 1>to build their big main event on ESPN. Now it's

<v Speaker 1>John Cena against Brock. Lesner get that they don't feel

<v Speaker 1>like they have to offer any explanation as to why

<v Speaker 1>Brock attack them. Scene is going to be on Raw

<v Speaker 1>tomorrow night. Maybe he can deliver a home run go

<v Speaker 1>home promo to really sell this on his own.

<v Speaker 2>It's just lazy, you know.

<v Speaker 1>I miss the days where when they would build to

<v Speaker 1>a big main event on a pay per view, you

<v Speaker 1>would actually see the wrestlers on the show every week

<v Speaker 1>building to that main event in a fun way. You

<v Speaker 1>don't get that with these part time players, and that's

<v Speaker 1>also a big part of why these weekly shows are

<v Speaker 1>so dull most of the time. Now, the match itself,

<v Speaker 1>I liken it to their extreme Rules match in twenty twelve,

<v Speaker 1>where I think it's going to be a spectacle more

<v Speaker 1>than anything else. Sena is coming off two banger matches

<v Speaker 1>in the month of August, one against Cody and the

<v Speaker 1>other against Logan Paul. The history with him and Brock

<v Speaker 1>dates all the way back to that OVW class of

<v Speaker 1>two thousand and two. You know, they're very familiar.

<v Speaker 2>With each other.

<v Speaker 1>A lot of history there, not all of it great.

<v Speaker 1>Lesner and Sena did not get along back in those

<v Speaker 1>early days. That was more so from the Lesnar side.

<v Speaker 1>He did not like John Cena. He even went so

<v Speaker 1>far as to bad mouthed him to Vince McMahon. So

<v Speaker 1>there's history there, you know. I used to do a

<v Speaker 1>segment on the show called match Anatomy many years ago,

<v Speaker 1>and I did one on their Backlash match from two

<v Speaker 1>thousand and three. It's on episode two fourteen if you

<v Speaker 1>ever want to go back and check that out. They've

<v Speaker 1>had many matches over the years. That was their first

<v Speaker 1>really big match, but this being their last dance together,

<v Speaker 1>I think they're going to go out there and lay

<v Speaker 1>it all on the line, whatever they've got, whatever they've

<v Speaker 1>got left in them. I think we'll see it here

<v Speaker 1>and in the end, Brock Lesner is going to win.

<v Speaker 1>With Brock, you never know what you're gonna get. You

<v Speaker 1>could get an epic battle or you could get a

<v Speaker 1>very boring one. You know, those matches with Bobby Lashley

<v Speaker 1>were very disappointing, but his last match with Roman Reigns

<v Speaker 1>was one of their best. And his very last match,

<v Speaker 1>which was a Cody, was great. I think this one

<v Speaker 1>will be closer to that. By the way, with the

<v Speaker 1>announcement that Sina will only be appearing on Raw from

<v Speaker 1>here on out, it got me thinking about just how

<v Speaker 1>loaded up that Raw roster is right now. Just look

<v Speaker 1>at this, like, this is what Raw has right now.

<v Speaker 1>John Cena. No, granted, John Cena only has limited dates left.

<v Speaker 1>If he even wrestles a match on Raw, maybe he

<v Speaker 1>wrestles one. It's not like he's a full time member.

<v Speaker 1>But he is now a Raw guy for the rest

<v Speaker 1>of the year. So you got John Cena, Roman, Rains,

<v Speaker 1>cm Punk, aj Lee Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, Eo Sky Rhea, Ripley,

<v Speaker 1>Live Morgan when she gets back, Stephanie Vquire Gunther, the

<v Speaker 1>usso's La Knight bron Breaker, who is like looked at

<v Speaker 1>as the heir apparent and aj styles are all on

<v Speaker 1>Monday Night Raw. There is a serious imbalance right now

<v Speaker 1>between the two rosters, and I didn't mention guys like

<v Speaker 1>Seamus Russev Ilya Dragonov, who is said to be ready

<v Speaker 1>to come back. They're just trying to come up with

<v Speaker 1>a way to reintroduce him and Perbodyslam dot Net. One

<v Speaker 1>idea they've been discussing internally is a program between Dragonov

<v Speaker 1>and Russev as a way to bring him back to TV.

<v Speaker 2>Sign me up. I think those could be some fun matches. Anyway.

<v Speaker 1>I'll be watching Wrestle paloues A live and covering it

<v Speaker 1>live on YouTube Saturday night, so join me there. I

<v Speaker 1>mentioned Stephanie Vekera is gonna be wrestling on NXT this Tuesday.

<v Speaker 1>She's not the only NXT alum wrestling on that show. NXT,

<v Speaker 1>for those who don't know, is presenting its homecoming show

<v Speaker 1>from Full Sale University this week. I do miss those

<v Speaker 1>Full Sale days. It was like the closest thing to

<v Speaker 1>a modern day version of Superstars. It really was like

<v Speaker 1>forty eight minutes in and out. You know, it could

<v Speaker 1>be a mix of good and bad, but I was

<v Speaker 1>most entertained, so those were good times. Carmelo Hayes made

<v Speaker 1>a surprise appearance this week, backing up Trick Williams against DIY,

<v Speaker 1>but also making it very clear the two of them

<v Speaker 1>are not friends again, so the two of them are

<v Speaker 1>going to reunite for a match with DIY this Tuesday.

<v Speaker 1>Then later, after Tavion Hides beat Ethan Page in a

<v Speaker 1>flag match, Tyler Breese made an appearance, coming out to

<v Speaker 1>his old music and wearing his old outfit, the furry

<v Speaker 1>boots and everything. He just looked like he had stepped

<v Speaker 1>out of a time portal from twenty fifteen and right

<v Speaker 1>down to the selfie stick. He laid down in the

<v Speaker 1>ring next to the Page and took selfies, which sets

<v Speaker 1>up a North American title match between the two of

<v Speaker 1>them this Tuesday. Went away by the way to set

<v Speaker 1>up a title match.

<v Speaker 2>Wow.

<v Speaker 1>I was appalled by the lack of reaction for Tyler Breese,

<v Speaker 1>just an appalling lack of respect in the PC for

<v Speaker 1>this man. I was a big Tyler Brees mark when

<v Speaker 1>he debuted that gimmick and then he got called up

<v Speaker 1>to the main roster and that was it. That was

<v Speaker 1>all she wrote, they killed him dead. Then at the

<v Speaker 1>end of the show, Jace Jane was upset with Fallon

<v Speaker 1>Henley and Jasmine Nicks for failing to become number one

<v Speaker 1>contenders for the women's tag team titles, and she was

<v Speaker 1>berating the two of them until Stephanie Vicaierre came out,

<v Speaker 1>then Tiffany Stratton, and then Rhea Ripley after Jace had

<v Speaker 1>declared herself the greatest NXT Women's champion of all time. Yeah,

<v Speaker 1>it's a good thing that three former NXT Women's champions

<v Speaker 1>just so happened to pull up in cars outside the

<v Speaker 1>building at the same time.

<v Speaker 2>You know that she said this. It's amazing.

<v Speaker 1>So all three women hit the ring to take out

<v Speaker 1>Fatal Influence to close out the show, and that match

<v Speaker 1>has been made. It will be Fatal Influence against Ripley, Stratton,

<v Speaker 1>and Vicaire at full Sale. It'll be a fatal funeral

<v Speaker 1>at full Sale for jac and her team. Beyond those

<v Speaker 1>three matches, they're also doing Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss

<v Speaker 1>against Tatum Paxley and Izzy Dame for the women's tag

<v Speaker 1>team time and a Grayson Waller Affects segment with Obafemi

<v Speaker 1>and Ricky Saints, and they're also teasing more old names

<v Speaker 1>may be appearing, maybe a Bobby Rude, William Regal. I

<v Speaker 1>think they show Triple H in the commercial. Not a

<v Speaker 1>lot of storyline progression with these matches, but it looks

<v Speaker 1>like it's meant to be more of an anniversary show

<v Speaker 1>than anything else. Now, I got some news here on

<v Speaker 1>a WWE Hall of Famer in one Jerry the King Lawler.

<v Speaker 2>This comes per TMZ Sports.

<v Speaker 1>On Thursday, Jerry the King Lawler was forced to pull

<v Speaker 1>out of a scheduled appearance after suffering a stroke, but

<v Speaker 1>the good news is that he is already on the

<v Speaker 1>road to recovery. According to TMZ Sports, Jerry's daughter tells

<v Speaker 1>us that he experienced the medical issue in Florida last

<v Speaker 1>Friday at one of his homes. He says his daughter

<v Speaker 1>is taking him back to his primary residence where he

<v Speaker 1>will rest up for a few more weeks before getting

<v Speaker 1>back to normal. Lawler was set to appear at Horror

<v Speaker 1>Hound Weekend in Cincinnati starting on Friday, but organizers announced

<v Speaker 1>Monday that he would not be attending due to some

<v Speaker 1>personal matters. Now, there was a subsequent story from the

<v Speaker 1>Fox affiliate in Memphis that he suffered a minor stroke

<v Speaker 1>at his Florida condo that affected his right side. So

<v Speaker 1>his last stroke affected his left side. This one affected

<v Speaker 1>his right side and impacted his vision slightly, although he

<v Speaker 1>is able to walk and talk, according to his caretaker,

<v Speaker 1>and he has since been released from the hospital and

<v Speaker 1>is convalescing at his home in Memphis. That stroke in

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty three was much much worse. I mean, that

<v Speaker 1>was a massive stroke that he had, but it also

<v Speaker 1>wasn't his first. That came in twenty eighteen. This week

<v Speaker 1>was actually the thirteen year anniversary of what the TMZ

<v Speaker 1>story called his heart attack during an episode of Raw

<v Speaker 1>back in twenty twelve, where he basically died for twenty minutes. Technically,

<v Speaker 1>it wasn't a heart attack. Everyone always says that it was.

<v Speaker 1>I've said that in the past two But what it

<v Speaker 1>was was his heart just stopped beating. Call it a

<v Speaker 1>cardiac episode, but it wasn't actually a heart attack. And

<v Speaker 1>he also got hit with a twenty thousand dollars hospital

<v Speaker 1>bill for that. I remember Lawler complaining about that in

<v Speaker 1>an interview once because they were in Canada. He thought

<v Speaker 1>Canadian healthcare was supposed to be free. What a crock

<v Speaker 1>of shit. It's like, yeah, well it may be if

<v Speaker 1>you're a Canadian citizen who pays taxes. There you're not

<v Speaker 1>a Canadian citizen, Jerry, no free ride for you. Actually,

<v Speaker 1>he did get a free ride since WWE paid the bill.

<v Speaker 1>So anyway, that's his third stroke in seven years. That's

<v Speaker 1>not good. But you know, he's also seventy five years old.

<v Speaker 1>He has obviously a history of health issues, and unfortunately

<v Speaker 1>stuff like that is going to happen for a guy

<v Speaker 1>who had the gift of gab and spent so much

<v Speaker 1>of his career running his mouth and using his words,

<v Speaker 1>and that's how he made money. You know, that last

<v Speaker 1>stroke really did a lot of damage. He was unbusted

<v Speaker 1>open Radio in June and you could tell the toll

<v Speaker 1>that the stroke had on him. He was struggling to

<v Speaker 1>remember people's names that he shared the ring with. At

<v Speaker 1>one point he said, oh my gosh, I just can't

<v Speaker 1>think of their names. You know, one of them is

<v Speaker 1>one of the top heels or baby faces right now,

<v Speaker 1>and Mark Henry had to help him, you know, find

<v Speaker 1>the name, which was CM Punk and he said, yes, yes,

<v Speaker 1>it was CM Punk and then he was talking about

<v Speaker 1>his past rivals and couldn't remember Terry Funk's name, and

<v Speaker 1>Bully Ray said, that must have been one hell of

<v Speaker 1>a stroke if you can't remember Terry Funk's name, And

<v Speaker 1>Lawler said, it's true. I can't remember, like I know

<v Speaker 1>his name, I just can't bring it up.

<v Speaker 2>You know.

<v Speaker 1>Stroke strokes are very scary. They can hit you at

<v Speaker 1>any age, but the older you are the worst. These

<v Speaker 1>things are going to be switching over to the aew side.

<v Speaker 1>This comes from the New York Times, although it was

<v Speaker 1>the Wall Street Journal that broke the story. That's behind

<v Speaker 1>a paywall, though, so this the Times version. David Ellison,

<v Speaker 1>the media mogul who took over Paramount just last month,

<v Speaker 1>has already set his sights on another blockbuster deal. He

<v Speaker 1>wants to buy Warner Brothers Discovery. Mister Ellison is planning

<v Speaker 1>a bid for the company which owns HBO, CNN, and

<v Speaker 1>the Warner Brothers Movie Studio. According to three people with

<v Speaker 1>knowledge of the plans, a merger of the two Hollywood

<v Speaker 1>giants would reshape the media industry, putting some of the

<v Speaker 1>most renowned news and entertainment brands under the same roof.

<v Speaker 1>It would unite two of the biggest movie studios and

<v Speaker 1>two of the most influential news networks, CBS News and CNN.

<v Speaker 1>Warner Brothers Discovery is already reorganizing its media business. The

<v Speaker 1>company said this here that it would split its cable

<v Speaker 1>networks rather from its streaming and studio business, following a

<v Speaker 1>similar move at Comcast. Mister Ellison is interested in acquiring

<v Speaker 1>the entire company, in line with his strategy of doubling

<v Speaker 1>down on both streaming and traditional TV. The people would

<v Speaker 1>not doledge of the plan said the bid would be

<v Speaker 1>made mostly in cash. A deal to acquire Warner Brothers

<v Speaker 1>Discovery would be costly. The company is worth forty one

<v Speaker 1>billion dollars and has thirty five billion in debt, remnants

<v Speaker 1>of the twenty twenty two merger that brought it to life.

<v Speaker 1>But the Ellison family has the means. His father, Larry,

<v Speaker 1>is co founder of Oracle and one of the richest

<v Speaker 1>men in the world, with an estimated net worth of

<v Speaker 1>three hundred eighty three billion dollars. Mister Ellison has moved

<v Speaker 1>quickly to transform paramount. To succeed, he will need to

<v Speaker 1>persuade the board of Warner Brothers Discovery and its shareholders

<v Speaker 1>that they are better off selling the company now than

<v Speaker 1>waiting for its prospects to improve once it is separated

<v Speaker 1>into two companies. News of the potential bids sent Warner

<v Speaker 1>Brothers Discovery's stock soaring twenty seven percent on Thursday. Once

<v Speaker 1>the split is completed next spring, the company that includes

<v Speaker 1>the screaming and studio business, to be called Warner Brothers

<v Speaker 1>could be entice to a wide variety of bidders that

<v Speaker 1>includes tech companies like Amazon and Apple that are trying

<v Speaker 1>to expand their own entertainment businesses. Indeed, some people in

<v Speaker 1>Hollywood say the goal of splitting up WBD is to

<v Speaker 1>set up a bidding war. So what does this mean

<v Speaker 1>for AEW Any shakeup like this could have major consequences

<v Speaker 1>for their future on cable TV. You've got UFC content

<v Speaker 1>coming to Paramount. They made that ridiculous seven billion dollar deal,

<v Speaker 1>almost eight billion dollar deal, and then AAW obviously is

<v Speaker 1>tied to Warner Brothers Discovery. I wouldn't think that it

<v Speaker 1>would affect their current deal, but it could absolutely affect

<v Speaker 1>a possible renewal if Paramount is in bed with TKO,

<v Speaker 1>which obviously they are I literally just answered a question

<v Speaker 1>about this in the mailbag what two or three episodes

<v Speaker 1>ago about Paramount possibly buying Warner Brothers Discovery, And at

<v Speaker 1>the time it was just a rumor that was floating around,

<v Speaker 1>and I said, I didn't think it would happen right now. Now,

<v Speaker 1>you know, maybe in a few years, but not right now.

<v Speaker 1>And it looks like Allison is serious about doing this asap,

<v Speaker 1>and I could see why he would be. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>like I said, then if you combine their streaming subscribers,

<v Speaker 1>it would make them the number two streaming service in

<v Speaker 1>the world, only behind Netflix. I think aw is safe

<v Speaker 1>for now unless the bottom really were to fall out,

<v Speaker 1>or a Warner or in this case, Paramount, if you

<v Speaker 1>know they owned, it felt like they were no longer

<v Speaker 1>getting a return on their investment, you know, and they

<v Speaker 1>clearly don't feel that way right now. For all the

<v Speaker 1>noise on social media that says otherwise, they clearly don't

<v Speaker 1>feel that way right now. If they have certain performance

<v Speaker 1>benchmarks that they're no longer meeting, then they're going to

<v Speaker 1>be in trouble regardless of who the owners are. You know,

<v Speaker 1>the relationships that Tony Kahan has on the WBD side.

<v Speaker 1>Those may help him, but only to a point. You know,

<v Speaker 1>I think their current deal is safe, but it's twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty seven when they have to worry, and that's so

<v Speaker 1>far off it's kind of pointless to even be thinking

<v Speaker 1>about it right now. What's happening a lot sooner is

<v Speaker 1>Warner Brothers Discovery is splitting into two, right That is

<v Speaker 1>what was mentioned in the article. That's supposed to be

<v Speaker 1>taking place in April. Now, if this were to go through,

<v Speaker 1>maybe that ends up not happening, but as of right now,

<v Speaker 1>the company is supposed to split in April of twenty

<v Speaker 1>twenty six, and there's talk of a new TNT sports

<v Speaker 1>subscription service because we don't have enough of those, and

<v Speaker 1>then moving sports off of HBO Max and putting it

<v Speaker 1>on there. AW is said to be of the impression

<v Speaker 1>that the deal they signed was specifically for the product

<v Speaker 1>to be on HBO Max and that would be through

<v Speaker 1>at least the end of twenty twenty seven. So even

<v Speaker 1>when the company, or when and if the company splits

<v Speaker 1>into two, it should not have any negative effect on AW.

<v Speaker 1>But you're talking about splitting a gigantic media conglomerate into

<v Speaker 1>two parts, like if there are any changes in leadership

<v Speaker 1>between now and then, meaning the people who help craft

<v Speaker 1>the aw deal are suddenly no longer the ones in charge.

<v Speaker 1>That could be very bad, but right now there's no

<v Speaker 1>indication of that happening, by the way. David Zaslov, the

<v Speaker 1>head of Warner Brothers Discovery, in an interview with a

<v Speaker 1>Hollywood reporter, said HBO Max is expected to reach at

<v Speaker 1>least one hundred and fifty million homes worldwide next year,

<v Speaker 1>and that because of the high quality of the company's films,

<v Speaker 1>TV and streaming content, HBO Max plans to raise its

<v Speaker 1>subscription prices over time. He says the service is currently

<v Speaker 1>way underpriced and that price increases will be gradual. Get

<v Speaker 1>ready for more price increases yay. Today's episode is sponsored

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<v Speaker 1>Factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase.

<v Speaker 1>We got an update on Wardlow, and it's not good

<v Speaker 1>Wardlow who just came back to aw after a year

<v Speaker 1>and a half away healing from injuries and he was

<v Speaker 1>filming American Gladiators. So now he finally comes back at

<v Speaker 1>Forbidden Door, he joins the don Kallis family. He attacks

<v Speaker 1>Swerve Strickland I Prince Nana, and in so doing he

<v Speaker 1>hurts himself, Wardlow is injured. He is officially part of

<v Speaker 1>this unlucky triad of what I like to call Wardlow,

<v Speaker 1>Adam Cole, and Jay White, three men that have been

<v Speaker 1>besieged by just injuries at the worst possible time in

<v Speaker 1>their career and just seem to have the absolute worst

<v Speaker 1>luck in the world. Probably none more so than Adam Cole,

<v Speaker 1>because for him it may be career ending, but they are.

<v Speaker 1>They are a faction together that I don't think anybody

<v Speaker 1>wants to join. Fightful Select reported that sources within AAW

<v Speaker 1>are worried the former three time TNT champion may have

<v Speaker 1>suffered a torn peck, potentially putting him out of action

<v Speaker 1>for some time. The report states that he may have

<v Speaker 1>sustained the injury during his return angle at Forbidden Door,

<v Speaker 1>where he attacks were of Strickland and aligned with the

<v Speaker 1>Kallus family, although that isn't confirmed. Again, this is the

<v Speaker 1>original report from earlier this week. Wardlow had just finished

<v Speaker 1>filming two seasons of American Gladiators at the time of

<v Speaker 1>his return. Filming took place in France this summer, and

<v Speaker 1>the show will air on Amazon Prime with no release

<v Speaker 1>date yet announced. Wardlow has not wrestled since the March thirteenth,

<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty four episode of Dynamite, if you remember, that

<v Speaker 1>was their Big Business episode in Boston, where he lost

<v Speaker 1>to Samoa Joe in a match for the AW World Championship. Later,

<v Speaker 1>in another report from Fightful Select, they revealed a big

<v Speaker 1>change to what the original plan was for the AW

<v Speaker 1>World title match at All Out. They reported that Wardlow

<v Speaker 1>was originally going to challenge Hangman Page, not Kyle Fletcher. However,

<v Speaker 1>that had to change after Wardlow tore his pectoral muscle

<v Speaker 1>at Forbidden Door while delivering a clothesline. He did make

<v Speaker 1>an appearance at the subsequent Dynamite after Forbidden Door, but

<v Speaker 1>has not been seen since. Yeah, he made an appearance

<v Speaker 1>as a stick figure in the background. Basically, I don't

<v Speaker 1>know why Tony Kahan thought that it would be a

<v Speaker 1>good idea to have Wardlow's first match, or or first

<v Speaker 1>big match anyway in eighteen months beat for the World Championship,

<v Speaker 1>especially when the last match he wrestled eighteen months ago

<v Speaker 1>that he lost was for the World Championship. I don't

<v Speaker 1>really understand that, but it doesn't matter anyway, because now

<v Speaker 1>it's not happening. If this guy didn't have bad luck,

<v Speaker 1>he would have no luck at all. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>what else to say. Obviously, I wish him the best.

<v Speaker 1>I hope that the tear is maybe not as severe

<v Speaker 1>as it sounds like it is, because if it's a

<v Speaker 1>you know, peck tear, if it's bad enough, I mean,

<v Speaker 1>that's six to nine months right there. Doesn't mean that

<v Speaker 1>he can't be back on TV earlier than that, but

<v Speaker 1>he won't be able to get physical, So I don't

<v Speaker 1>really see the point in trotting him back on TV

<v Speaker 1>until he's ready. So that's another long layoff in you know,

<v Speaker 1>a list of long layoffs, whether it was for injury

<v Speaker 1>issues or or you know, booking issues. There's certainly been

<v Speaker 1>some booking missteps with him over the years, but injuries

<v Speaker 1>have also played a role. It's just been one thing

<v Speaker 1>after another, you know, And I feel bad for the guy,

<v Speaker 1>But I think we've reached a point now where while

<v Speaker 1>I hope he can come back and he can be

<v Speaker 1>a productive player for them on the roster, I don't

<v Speaker 1>really see him ever being at that level that I

<v Speaker 1>think a lot of people thought he could one day

<v Speaker 1>be at. I don't see that happening now. Enough time

<v Speaker 1>has gone by and there's been so many issues, and

<v Speaker 1>you know, then it becomes an issue of you know,

<v Speaker 1>can you trust him in that spot or something else

<v Speaker 1>gonna happen.

<v Speaker 2>I don't know. I don't really.

<v Speaker 1>I can't sit here and tell you that I see

<v Speaker 1>Wardlow being that big player for them that I thought

<v Speaker 1>he would be. Hopefully I'm wrong. I just hope he

<v Speaker 1>can come back and just have a productive career. At

<v Speaker 1>this point, I don't really have any other expectations for him.

<v Speaker 2>I hope he gets well soon.

<v Speaker 1>Let's talk about this All Out card coming up from

<v Speaker 1>Toronto next Saturday. By the way, the Dynamite numbers rebounded

<v Speaker 1>this week from four hundred and seventy two thousand last

<v Speaker 1>week up to five hundred and eighty four thousand this week,

<v Speaker 1>still tied for the third lowest total.

<v Speaker 2>Since May, but it's an improvement.

<v Speaker 1>Now here's the card as it currently stands for All Out,

<v Speaker 1>brody King and Bandido. It will be defending the aw

<v Speaker 1>tag team titles in a four way ladder match. Why

<v Speaker 1>because why not? They're holding three qualifying matches for the

<v Speaker 1>other spots this Wednesday, with the Young Bucks against Juice

<v Speaker 1>Robinson and Austin Gunn. That'll be a win for the Bucks.

<v Speaker 1>Lucasaurus and he keep saving against jet Speed, which should

<v Speaker 1>be a win for jet Speed, and top Flight takes

<v Speaker 1>on Josh Alexander and Hetchesero representing the don Kallis family

<v Speaker 1>and they will almost assuredly be winning that match. So Brodido,

<v Speaker 1>the Bucks, jet Speed and the Callous Family looks to

<v Speaker 1>be it. And I've got the Young Bucks winning the

<v Speaker 1>tag team titles, and I think from there, I think

<v Speaker 1>we get Cope and Christian eventually when they do win

<v Speaker 1>the titles, and they will, they win them from the

<v Speaker 1>Young Bucks. Eddie Kingston is coming back. He returns one

<v Speaker 1>on one against Big Bill. Eddie has not wrestled since

<v Speaker 1>May of last year against Gabe Kid. That was where

<v Speaker 1>he broke his leg. He tore his acl he tore

<v Speaker 1>his meniscus. I mean his leg and his knee basically

<v Speaker 1>were just destroyed. He also revealed this week that the

<v Speaker 1>day of the surgery, his insurance company, which had told

<v Speaker 1>him they would cover it, all of a sudden the

<v Speaker 1>day of they said, you know what, We're not going

<v Speaker 1>to cover it, which is a wonderful thing to say

<v Speaker 1>to somebody On the day of their surgery, when they're

<v Speaker 1>already stressed beyond belief. Not the first time they did

<v Speaker 1>that to him on the day of a surgery, he said.

<v Speaker 1>It happened three years ago, the day he was supposed

<v Speaker 1>to have hernia surgery. But Tony Kahn stepped in this

<v Speaker 1>time to take care of it, even though he got hurt.

<v Speaker 1>You know, technically in a New Japan ring and not

<v Speaker 1>in aw ring. How many people does this happen to

<v Speaker 1>on a daily basis who aren't lucky enough to have

<v Speaker 1>a billionaire step in to pay for it. The healthcare

<v Speaker 1>system in this country is infuriating. The setup for this

<v Speaker 1>match wasn't infuriating. It was just a very random way

<v Speaker 1>to get Eddie back in the mix. It's a way

<v Speaker 1>to get him back and get him a win. You know,

<v Speaker 1>Big Bill randomly called him out last week on Collision

<v Speaker 1>as a fellow New York guy, and that was it.

<v Speaker 2>That's how we ended up here.

<v Speaker 1>But then again, you know, look, many years ago, a

<v Speaker 1>young man named stone Cold Steve Austin started randomly calling

<v Speaker 1>out Brett Hart on television when Brett had been gone

<v Speaker 1>for months and months, and they ended up having a

<v Speaker 1>classic rivalry I don't think Eddie Kingston and Big Bill

<v Speaker 1>are going to have a classic rivalry, but I do

<v Speaker 1>think Eddie Kingston is going to get the win here too.

<v Speaker 1>I think that that's probably the easiest prediction to make

<v Speaker 1>on this entire show. Actually, no, the second easiest prediction

<v Speaker 1>to make on the entire show, because we also have

<v Speaker 1>Mercedes Monet defending her TBS Championship against ReHO, who did

<v Speaker 1>not look great in that tag match on Wednesday. It

<v Speaker 1>was her first match back since July of last year.

<v Speaker 1>Riho is wrestling Robin Renegade on the September to Remember

<v Speaker 1>episode of Dynamite this Wednesday, which is actually a three

<v Speaker 1>hour block from eight to eleven PM. Years ago, Mercedes

<v Speaker 1>said that she would love to form a faction with

<v Speaker 1>the Renegade Twins, and here we have one of the

<v Speaker 1>twins wrestling Riho. Maybe this is the start of that faction.

<v Speaker 1>Faction or no faction. Sydney Sweeney has a better chance

<v Speaker 1>of beating Mercedes for that belt than Rijo does, so

<v Speaker 1>more than Eddie Kingston and Big Bill. I think the

<v Speaker 1>easiest prediction to make here on this card is that

<v Speaker 1>Mercedes is going to retain her TBS title. The Hurt Syndicate,

<v Speaker 1>Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin and MVP take on Ricochet and

<v Speaker 1>the Gates of Agony. You know, there were reports previously

<v Speaker 1>about MVP and the Hurt Syndicate not wanting to lose

<v Speaker 1>the tag team titles to FTR, and there were certain

<v Speaker 1>names floated that they would be willing to lose to,

<v Speaker 1>and the Gates of Agony were on that alleged list. Well,

<v Speaker 1>time to put your money where your mouth is and

<v Speaker 1>this is a big opportunity for the Hurt Syndicate to

<v Speaker 1>put these guys over in a major way. So let's

<v Speaker 1>see what happens. I'm going with Ricochet in the Gates

<v Speaker 1>of Agony for the win. Here, MJF takes on Mark

<v Speaker 1>brisco In. What Briscoe said last night on Collision is

<v Speaker 1>going to be a tables and thumb tax match. Tables

<v Speaker 1>and tax. There's something we haven't seen before in eight boy,

<v Speaker 1>I haven't seen one of those in a while. MJF

<v Speaker 1>is defending his CMLL title this Friday at Arena Mexico

<v Speaker 1>against Mystico. He will lose that championship and then the

<v Speaker 1>next night he will or the next day, I guess

<v Speaker 1>he will redeem himself here MJF will beat Mark Briscoe.

<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

<v Speaker 1>I forgot to mention that this is now a three

<v Speaker 1>pm Eastern show, so I assume that means that the

<v Speaker 1>Zero Hour is starting either at one or one thirty.

<v Speaker 1>But it went from an eight pm Eastern start time

<v Speaker 1>to a three pm Eastern start time for all the

<v Speaker 1>obvious reasons. FTR takes on Adam Copeland and Christian Cage.

<v Speaker 1>This is a match that has been on the radar

<v Speaker 1>and I think fairly predictable now for many months that

<v Speaker 1>it was building to this. The build has been very weird,

<v Speaker 1>no more so than on Wednesday. Cope and Christian were

<v Speaker 1>not on the show. They had to pull Apart Brawl

<v Speaker 1>the previous week, which was fine, you know, standard stuff.

<v Speaker 1>They weren't there on the show on Wednesday, FTR was.

<v Speaker 1>They came out with stokely hath theway. It was their

<v Speaker 1>last night on as far as Dynamite goes at the

<v Speaker 1>twenty three hundred Arena. They wrapped up their residency with

<v Speaker 1>their taping the next night. But they came out and

<v Speaker 1>the segments serve no real purpose other than just to

<v Speaker 1>try to make them look like tough guys and put

<v Speaker 1>heat on them by trying to pick a fight with

<v Speaker 1>the fans, like they thought that they were transported back

<v Speaker 1>to the ECW Arena of old in nineteen ninety seven

<v Speaker 1>and they were the Dudley Boys, except they're not the

<v Speaker 1>Dudley Boys in the ECW Arena in nineteen ninety seven.

<v Speaker 1>But there you had Das getting up in you know,

<v Speaker 1>fans faces, and they're trying to start something. Then they

<v Speaker 1>ended up beating up the cameramen and his assistant and

<v Speaker 1>it's like, okay, he's beating up production crew members. I

<v Speaker 1>don't know how this is supposed to put more heat

<v Speaker 1>on their match with cop and Christian. This was just

<v Speaker 1>a very bizarre segment here. I don't know what the

<v Speaker 1>hell that was. So they got one more night on

<v Speaker 1>Dynamite tomorrow. I think they're having a face to face

<v Speaker 1>and let them go out there and cut promos on

<v Speaker 1>it each other. That's really all you can do at

<v Speaker 1>this point. The match itself should be very good, and

<v Speaker 1>I see no reason for Copeland and Christian to lose here,

<v Speaker 1>So I have them going over on FTR for the win,

<v Speaker 1>and then inevitably it all comes down to just what

<v Speaker 1>event he wants to do it at but they will

<v Speaker 1>win those tag team titles, and I think it'll be

<v Speaker 1>from the bucks. I don't know if it's a full

<v Speaker 1>gear thing. I don't know if that's, you know, a

<v Speaker 1>world's end. Maybe he wants to save it for the

<v Speaker 1>end of the year. I don't know, but I think

<v Speaker 1>that's where this is headed. Kazuchka Okada will defend the

<v Speaker 1>aw Unified Championship in a three way match against Kenoski Takeshta,

<v Speaker 1>who beat Anthony Bowen's last night and the winner of

<v Speaker 1>the match this Wednesday between The Beast, Mortos and Mascarroderrada.

<v Speaker 1>Okada beat Michael Oku last night on collision to retain

<v Speaker 1>his title and advance. Yes, you heard that right. The

<v Speaker 1>champion was in the tournament in a title match. I

<v Speaker 1>don't make the rules. Don't look at me. Yes, it's dumb,

<v Speaker 1>don't look at me. I would assume we're looking at

<v Speaker 1>Mortos joining the other two should be a great match.

<v Speaker 1>Mortos is going to be in there to take the

<v Speaker 1>losing fall when Okada retains. It's the only reason that

<v Speaker 1>he or Derata. But I figure it's going to be Mortos.

<v Speaker 1>Literally the only reason they're in this match, which then

<v Speaker 1>spares Takeshta from a direct loss while preserving him for

<v Speaker 1>a future singles match with Okada where he then wins

<v Speaker 1>the title. Timeless Tony Storm defends the AW Women's World Championship.

<v Speaker 1>So again, you look at this card. Here, they turned

<v Speaker 1>the tag team title match into a four way ladder match,

<v Speaker 1>they turned the unified title match into a three way,

<v Speaker 1>and we have another four way. We have two four

<v Speaker 1>ways at least on this show. This time it's Timeless

<v Speaker 1>Tony Storm defending the AW Women's World Championship against Jamie Hayter,

<v Speaker 1>Chris Statlander and Tecla. And as with the unified title match,

<v Speaker 1>as with the tag team title match, you look at

<v Speaker 1>all the talent in there, certainly you know should be

<v Speaker 1>an excellent match. Not how I wanted to get Tony

<v Speaker 1>Storm and Jamie Hater in the ring for the first time,

<v Speaker 1>but you know, I'll take it. This is a chance

<v Speaker 1>for them to shake things up. This is a match

<v Speaker 1>where I think that Chris Statlander should win, and I

<v Speaker 1>think she's going to win. I'll make a bold prediction here.

<v Speaker 1>I'll go against the grain because I do think there's

<v Speaker 1>a really good chance it could happen that Chris Statlander

<v Speaker 1>is going to win the Women's World Championship. They've been

<v Speaker 1>teasing lately that she might join up, she might link

<v Speaker 1>up with the Death Riders. We just saw Daniel Garcia

<v Speaker 1>join the Death Riders. Especially if they follow through with her,

<v Speaker 1>this would be the place to have her, you know,

<v Speaker 1>go over strong and win a championship and bring the

<v Speaker 1>title into the Death Riders. Not that I'm saying I

<v Speaker 1>want her to join the Death Riders. I greatly dislike

<v Speaker 1>that idea, but I'm going with Chris Statlander to win

<v Speaker 1>the title. Nothing wrong with shaking things up a little

<v Speaker 1>bit and doing a title change here. Statlander is great.

<v Speaker 1>John Moxley is going to be wrestling on the show

<v Speaker 1>against Darby Allen in a coffin match, and I don't

<v Speaker 1>think this is the end of their issues together. I

<v Speaker 1>think John Moxley is going to win this coffin match

<v Speaker 1>and they're going to continue to play this feud out

<v Speaker 1>for a little while longer. And Hangman Adam Page defends

<v Speaker 1>the AW World Championship against the TNT champion, Kyle Fletcher

<v Speaker 1>in a match where only the AW World title is

<v Speaker 1>on the line. It's also a match where Fletcher has

<v Speaker 1>guaranteed that no member He's given his word that no

<v Speaker 1>member of the Don Kallis family will get involved. That

<v Speaker 1>this is coming off an episode of Dynamite where Ricochet

<v Speaker 1>had a gentleman's agreement with Shelton Benjamin that the Gates

<v Speaker 1>of Agony would not get involved in their match on Wednesday,

<v Speaker 1>and then they did because they're heels and heels cannot

<v Speaker 1>be trusted. But we're gonna have to take Fletcher at

<v Speaker 1>his word here. You know, he said no member of

<v Speaker 1>the Kallus family would get involved. That doesn't necessarily preclude

<v Speaker 1>someone else who's outside the callous family from getting involved

<v Speaker 1>in this match, although other than MJF I'm not sure

<v Speaker 1>who that person would be. It doesn't matter though this

<v Speaker 1>should be a great match. Hangman Adam Page is going

<v Speaker 1>to retain the championship. Kyle Fletcher was not even the

<v Speaker 1>first choice to be in this spot. Again, Wardlow was

<v Speaker 1>reportedly going to be in this spot and isn't only

<v Speaker 1>because he's hurt, so they slotted Kyle in there. So

<v Speaker 1>Kyle has even less of a chance of winning the

<v Speaker 1>championship that he did before.

<v Speaker 2>We read about the ward Low injury.

<v Speaker 1>Anyway, I'll have coverage of All Out with my full

<v Speaker 1>thoughts as part of the sound off next Sunday. That'll

<v Speaker 1>be episode nine thirty. Some other news and notes. All

<v Speaker 1>Japan Pro Wrestling held a press conference on Friday to

<v Speaker 1>announce the death of twenty one year old star Tyshian Nagau,

<v Speaker 1>who passed away after being hit by one of their

<v Speaker 1>tour buses back on May thirty first. This is just

<v Speaker 1>an awful story. On Friday, All Japan representative director Suyoki

<v Speaker 1>Fukuda and director Toshiki Toeda were on hand at the

<v Speaker 1>press conference to provide details of the incident that led

<v Speaker 1>to his death. Now this comes from Monthly Pro res

<v Speaker 1>with a hat tip to the account Mera Wrestling on

<v Speaker 1>x for the English translation. It was revealed that the

<v Speaker 1>tour bus that struck Nogao did so in a narrow

<v Speaker 1>alley near the AJPW dojo. As the incident is still

<v Speaker 1>under investigation by the police, no further details were given.

<v Speaker 1>Nogao had been in the intensive care unit since May

<v Speaker 1>thirty first due to traumatic shock from abdominal compression. There

<v Speaker 1>was hope that he would recover following numerous surgeries on

<v Speaker 1>September sixth Nogao's condition took a turn for the worse.

<v Speaker 1>He passed away on September seventh from Sepsisnigao was cremated

<v Speaker 1>on September tenth, with all all japan wrestlers attending to

<v Speaker 1>pay their final respects. Dave Meltzer had more information on

<v Speaker 1>this in this week's Observer. He said the situation was

<v Speaker 1>addressed in vague terms by the company, but everything was

<v Speaker 1>largely kept secret from everyone, including the talent. On May

<v Speaker 1>thirty first, the tour bus was to leave for a

<v Speaker 1>trip for a show in Sendai. He was outside behind

<v Speaker 1>the bus and the driver didn't see him and ran

<v Speaker 1>him over. The talent on the bus were in shock

<v Speaker 1>and had to lift the bus off of him, and

<v Speaker 1>many thought he was dead for sure. They administered CPR

<v Speaker 1>until the ambulance came. On June twenty first, the company

<v Speaker 1>stated that Negau had suffered abdominal compression resulting in traumatic

<v Speaker 1>shock from being hit by the bus, and it was

<v Speaker 1>said he was receiving treatment in the intensive care unit

<v Speaker 1>and was in a critical closely monitored condition. On July

<v Speaker 1>twenty second, they said he was in critical condition in

<v Speaker 1>intensive care. The company then announced his death on September seventh.

<v Speaker 1>Nogw was seen as a very promising rookie, having just

<v Speaker 1>debuted last October. His job was to tell the driver

<v Speaker 1>left right stop, et cetera, when pulling out backwards. It

<v Speaker 1>was a rainy day. Suddenly the driver in backing out

<v Speaker 1>ran over him. The goal slipped on a puddle and

<v Speaker 1>fell down. The driver didn't hear him nor see him

<v Speaker 1>because of a blind spot, and people heard a terrible scream.

<v Speaker 1>Some thought that it was the bobcat that hung out

<v Speaker 1>at the dojo that the boys leave food for when

<v Speaker 1>they heard the scream. Everyone heard the screaming. The gal's

<v Speaker 1>upper half of his body was stuck between the bus

<v Speaker 1>and the sidewalk and he was bunched up against a

<v Speaker 1>cement wall. His face was purple. The wrestlers lifted the

<v Speaker 1>bus off of him and moved him to the grass.

<v Speaker 1>The All Japan doctor was there with defibrillator pads. He

<v Speaker 1>stopped breathing at points, and some thought he was dead.

<v Speaker 1>The doctor was just trying to do whatever he could.

<v Speaker 1>Everyone kept things quiet, but the original report was that

<v Speaker 1>he had internal bleeding and would need surgery, and they

<v Speaker 1>thought or perhaps hoped that he would be okay. Talent

<v Speaker 1>was never a lie out to visit him. He was

<v Speaker 1>in a coma and the belief is that he never

<v Speaker 1>woke up from it, and finally the decision was made

<v Speaker 1>to remove him from life support. The driver was fired.

<v Speaker 1>Those close to the situation said the driver felt horrible.

<v Speaker 1>All Japan later hired a professional bus service transportation system

<v Speaker 1>with two drivers at all times. He was said to

<v Speaker 1>have great promise and picked up on everything very quickly.

<v Speaker 1>A memorial service is set for September fifteenth for him

<v Speaker 1>at Corrikan Hall at the All Japan Royal Road Tournament event.

<v Speaker 1>And that wasn't the only wrestling related death this week.

<v Speaker 1>Independent start Jonathan Ekavaria, better known as Jaka, who was

<v Speaker 1>well known on the Northeast independent scene. He had been

<v Speaker 1>wrestling for almost twenty years. Only thirty nine years old,

<v Speaker 1>he had suffered a heart attack after his match for

<v Speaker 1>Boca Ratone Championship Wrestling on August thirty first, and had

<v Speaker 1>been in the ICU in critical condition ever since. He

<v Speaker 1>died last Sunday. A lot of wrestlers I know we're

<v Speaker 1>very broken up about his passing, very close to him.

<v Speaker 1>His sister had set up a GoFundMe to help pay

<v Speaker 1>for his medical bills, but now any and all donations

<v Speaker 1>will go towards paying for his funeral expenses and there

<v Speaker 1>will be a service held for him in Florida tomorrow.

<v Speaker 1>I pulled a bunch of your questions and went through

<v Speaker 1>all your emails here. We got a big batch of

<v Speaker 1>them to get through. You can always email me for

<v Speaker 1>the mailbag, the Solo Monster at gmail dot com. Please

<v Speaker 1>include your name of where you are from when you

<v Speaker 1>write in. I got a nice email from lt that

<v Speaker 1>I thought I would share with you. He said, I'm

<v Speaker 1>a soldier in the army who listens to your podcast.

<v Speaker 1>There are plenty of times where my day is so

<v Speaker 1>busy and long that I can't watch any sports before bed.

<v Speaker 1>When I finished the day, I usually just want a shower,

<v Speaker 1>spend time with my family if possible, and then go

<v Speaker 1>to bed and do it all over again. Your recaps

<v Speaker 1>are great because they're thorough and insightful. I could listen

<v Speaker 1>when driving home or getting ready for work. I appreciate

<v Speaker 1>what you do. Thank you for sending that and that

<v Speaker 1>means a lot. And thank you for your service. Michael

<v Speaker 1>from Long Island. What did you think about the dumb

<v Speaker 1>comments Ronda Rousey made about Alexa Bliss. So, Ronda was

<v Speaker 1>on the Lapsed Fan podcast recently. I didn't get a

<v Speaker 1>chance to talk about this last week. I didn't hear

<v Speaker 1>the entire thing, but I heard enough of it and

<v Speaker 1>then I read the rest. She also did an interview

<v Speaker 1>with Yahoo's Sports and said that she has no reason

<v Speaker 1>to go back to WWE. She accomplished everything she wanted

<v Speaker 1>to do based on her last run there. We're all

<v Speaker 1>better off without her being there. She also said that

<v Speaker 1>she wasn't invited to take part in this year's Evolution show.

<v Speaker 1>Not that she turned it down, she just was never invited.

<v Speaker 1>And again that Evolution show is one of the best

<v Speaker 1>shows WWE is done all year. Where would Ronda have

<v Speaker 1>even fit on that card. She could have showed up

<v Speaker 1>and just waved to the crowd. It would have been

<v Speaker 1>a waste of time for her. But on the Lapse Fan,

<v Speaker 1>when one of the hosts suggested that Ronda should have

<v Speaker 1>squashed Alexa Bliss when she won her first world title

<v Speaker 1>in twenty eighteen, Ronda said, the fact that they had

<v Speaker 1>me fighting Alexa Bliss at all was fucking ridiculous. And

<v Speaker 1>you want to know why they had me against Alexa

<v Speaker 1>Bilists because she had the most merch sales at the time, Like,

<v Speaker 1>what the fuck that's your decision making process. I'm not

<v Speaker 1>sure Ronda Rowsey understands how pro wrestling works, even all

<v Speaker 1>these years later. Promoters go with those who make them

<v Speaker 1>the most money. Not only was Bliss one of their

<v Speaker 1>top merch sellers, she was the raw women's champion. So

<v Speaker 1>it's not as if Ronda had a lot of say

<v Speaker 1>in the matter. If they wanted to put the title

<v Speaker 1>on her. Bliss was the champion. Therefore she had to

<v Speaker 1>beat Alexibilist.

<v Speaker 2>To win the belt.

<v Speaker 1>Now, if they wanted her to be, you know, the

<v Speaker 1>brock Lesner of the women's division, she was no brock Lesner.

<v Speaker 1>But I mean, they could have pushed her like that

<v Speaker 1>if they wanted too. Sure, Alexa Bliss was only going

<v Speaker 1>to get so much offense in on Ronda Rowsey, but

<v Speaker 1>the way she is so dismissive of a lot, like

<v Speaker 1>who the hell is this girl? Yeah, she was pushed

<v Speaker 1>for a reason because she was and still is very popular.

<v Speaker 1>This is something Ronda Rowsey doesn't understand. If anyone had

<v Speaker 1>a reason to complain. It was Alexa Bliss who got

<v Speaker 1>concussed not once, but twice working with Ronda Rowsey because

<v Speaker 1>no one bothered to clue Ronda in that wrestling was

<v Speaker 1>a fucking work. Apparently, not only does she can cuss

<v Speaker 1>her twice, she can cussed her twice on the same move.

<v Speaker 1>It was a headlocked takeover, drove her head first into

<v Speaker 1>the mat. That's why Alexa didn't wrestle on that first

<v Speaker 1>Evolution show. She was stuck standing at ringside because Ronda,

<v Speaker 1>who clearly has suffered one too many concussions of her own,

<v Speaker 1>pulled a Bill Goldberg and injured her. Ronda has a

<v Speaker 1>very high opinion of herself. You know, she accomplished a

<v Speaker 1>lot in a relatively short period of time in her career,

<v Speaker 1>but she comes across very badly when she makes comments

<v Speaker 1>like the ones that she made in that interview. Chris

<v Speaker 1>from North Jersey, I can't say I'm surprised, but I'm

<v Speaker 1>a little sad after hearing about Mark Shapiro's interview where

<v Speaker 1>he states and WWE has a lot of work to

<v Speaker 1>do in regards to ticket yields in comparison to UFC.

<v Speaker 1>You have to be an adult to attend UFC. Every

<v Speaker 1>ticket is bought by someone who can afford to buy

<v Speaker 1>a ticket because they're adults. WWE is family friendly and

<v Speaker 1>ticketed as such by Vince. I'm afraid a lot of

<v Speaker 1>fans will no longer afford to go to events in

<v Speaker 1>the future, let alone now they are going around the

<v Speaker 1>world now for all events, including WrestleMania. I'm glad I

<v Speaker 1>got to go to my fair share with my kids,

<v Speaker 1>so I don't have the itch to go to shows

<v Speaker 1>much anymore. How long until the fans retaliate, maybe fans

<v Speaker 1>go to AW, which is affordable, and TKO is forced

<v Speaker 1>to change this. Well, that's not going to happen. You're

<v Speaker 1>not going to have such a groundswell of people migrating

<v Speaker 1>over to AW that Mark Shapiro looks at this and says,

<v Speaker 1>oh my god, we've made a mistake.

<v Speaker 2>We have to go back.

<v Speaker 1>You're not wrong when you say that it is an opportunity.

<v Speaker 1>It certainly is an opportunity for an aid and I've

<v Speaker 1>said this before. AW if they were smart, they would

<v Speaker 1>take advantage of this. And I don't know what the

<v Speaker 1>average AW ticket goes for as compared to WWE these days,

<v Speaker 1>obviously there's a big difference, but I would focus on affordability,

<v Speaker 1>and I would really you don't even have to mention WWE,

<v Speaker 1>but really, you know, focus on affordability when it comes

<v Speaker 1>to promoting these events, not that they're cheap, right, you

<v Speaker 1>never use that word. You know, they're less expensive, they're

<v Speaker 1>more affordable. You never use the word cheap. But there's

<v Speaker 1>an opportunity there for them to absolutely try to claw

<v Speaker 1>some fans away and just let them know, Hey, if

<v Speaker 1>you're looking to go to a wrestling show, not necessarily

<v Speaker 1>a WWE show, but a wrestling show, and you're coming

<v Speaker 1>to town, give us a chance, right, give us a shot.

<v Speaker 1>If you've never been to an aw show before, we're

<v Speaker 1>going to give you, you know, more bang for your

<v Speaker 1>buck or however they want to promote it. So there's

<v Speaker 1>definitely an opportunity there. There will be some fans maybe

<v Speaker 1>who who go over. But you know, you mentioned that

<v Speaker 1>Vince McMahon was more interested in making the product family friendly. Well, TKO,

<v Speaker 1>they have a different way of doing things. They're not

<v Speaker 1>so interested in focusing on just that. They see that

<v Speaker 1>there is a market for tickets to these events, these

<v Speaker 1>premium live events, premium prices right for tickets to these

<v Speaker 1>premium live events and other events, and they don't really

<v Speaker 1>I don't think they care so much about who the

<v Speaker 1>audience is that pays for the tickets. As long as

<v Speaker 1>they know there is an audience that will pay those

<v Speaker 1>prices for those tickets. If it was just adults, right,

<v Speaker 1>then so be it. That's going to be their focus.

<v Speaker 1>They're going to go where the money is. I think

<v Speaker 1>they're less concerned about the makeup of their audience and

<v Speaker 1>just making sure that people are willing to spend that

<v Speaker 1>kind of money, and that's the most important thing to them.

<v Speaker 1>And that is sad, but that's just the difference between them.

<v Speaker 1>That's just the way it is, and not a whole

<v Speaker 1>lot that we can do about it, other than certainly

<v Speaker 1>people could just stop watching. They could stop buying tickets

<v Speaker 1>to the events.

<v Speaker 2>I don't even remember the.

<v Speaker 1>Last time I went to a WWE event, you know,

<v Speaker 1>I'm glad I went to the WrestleManias that I went to.

<v Speaker 1>Probably never will again, but I went to about eight

<v Speaker 1>WrestleManias in a row, so that was enough for me.

<v Speaker 1>It is an experience I think that people if you've

<v Speaker 1>never done it before would enjoy, but I could see

<v Speaker 1>we're for a lot of fans now it's just way

<v Speaker 1>too expensive and as far as twenty twenty seven, a

<v Speaker 1>lot of fans are not going to be flying to

<v Speaker 1>Saudi Arabia for that one. So I look, I had

<v Speaker 1>my phil I'm good, you know, but there are a

<v Speaker 1>lot of other fans who are going to be shut

<v Speaker 1>out unfortunately, because it's just the way things are now,

<v Speaker 1>you know. It's just they have to prioritize, and it's

<v Speaker 1>just too expensive. If you have a family, if you

<v Speaker 1>have a kid, if you have two kids, three kids,

<v Speaker 1>I mean, whoa what must that cost? If you're going

<v Speaker 1>to fly to a WrestleMania you have airfare, hotel, food, tickets,

<v Speaker 1>if to take out a set mortgage in your house

<v Speaker 1>just to afford a wrestle media trip. Aaron from Cape

<v Speaker 1>Girardo personally watching WWE in this current triple TKO era

<v Speaker 1>is getting tougher and tougher between all of the DQ finishes,

<v Speaker 1>the predictable outcomes, the NonStop ads, sky high ticket prices,

<v Speaker 1>to focus on celebrities and storylines that feel half baked.

<v Speaker 1>It's wearing thin. So it got me thinking, what's been

<v Speaker 1>the hardest era or year of wrestling for you to

<v Speaker 1>sit through. And you have you ever gotten so frustrated

<v Speaker 1>that you almost gave up on WWE completely? I feel

<v Speaker 1>like I get this question once every few months. For me,

<v Speaker 1>it was the year nineteen ninety five. The product was

<v Speaker 1>just very dead. They were going really all in on

<v Speaker 1>these just ridiculous, over the top gimmicks. I mean, they

<v Speaker 1>always had gimmicks, and there have been some fun ones,

<v Speaker 1>but I mean Vince just went on some weird acid

<v Speaker 1>trip that year with all of the different characters, and

<v Speaker 1>they lost so many big names. They were trying to

<v Speaker 1>push a new generation of talent. So you had that

<v Speaker 1>core group of like Brett Hart and Razor Ramone and

<v Speaker 1>Diesel and the Undertaker was there and Shawn Michaels. They

<v Speaker 1>were in a rebuilding process and it was just a

<v Speaker 1>very down year. And there was a period in early

<v Speaker 1>ninety five where I was I was bored enough that

<v Speaker 1>I came close to just giving up because all my

<v Speaker 1>friends had stopped watching.

<v Speaker 2>I was the only one left.

<v Speaker 1>You know, they all used to watch and then they

<v Speaker 1>stopped for various reasons. You know, oh it's fake, or

<v Speaker 1>you know, maybe they didn't care about that, but then

<v Speaker 1>they got bored or they just grew out of it,

<v Speaker 1>and I came very close. But beyond ninety five, you know,

<v Speaker 1>I can't say in more recent years because this is

<v Speaker 1>what I do now, I'm still a wrestling fan in

<v Speaker 1>my core, even when I hate it for various reasons,

<v Speaker 1>because I know it could be so much better. Now

<v Speaker 1>this is what I do, So it's a little bit

<v Speaker 1>different now.

<v Speaker 2>You know.

<v Speaker 1>I rely on this now in a way that I

<v Speaker 1>didn't have to all those years ago. There was definitely

<v Speaker 1>a period though, in the late twenty tens, you know,

<v Speaker 1>certainly with WWE, where I wouldn't say I almost gave

<v Speaker 1>up on it completely, but it was very, very difficult

<v Speaker 1>to sit through those weekly shows. Absolutely, it's just bad television.

<v Speaker 1>There are people who get off on watching bad television

<v Speaker 1>and then ranting and raving about it because that's just

<v Speaker 1>what they do, or because it sells or whatever. And

<v Speaker 1>I can promise you if it were up to me,

<v Speaker 1>these shows would be fucking great every week. You know,

<v Speaker 1>I wouldn't be like, oh, I want the shows to

<v Speaker 1>be bad, like there might be some gold in there.

<v Speaker 1>You know, when you have those bad shows, you get

<v Speaker 1>those great rants right. But that's not why I do this,

<v Speaker 1>because at the end of the day, will people might

<v Speaker 1>find that fun every now and then, I still have

<v Speaker 1>to sit here and watch these shows every single week.

<v Speaker 1>I don't want to feel like I'm wasting my time.

<v Speaker 1>And there was definitely a period of of RAW, specifically

<v Speaker 1>around twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, where it was very hard

<v Speaker 1>to sit through those shows every single week, and many

<v Speaker 1>of you were watching those shows right along with me.

<v Speaker 2>And I always used to say.

<v Speaker 1>People would ask me, well, why do you used to watch,

<v Speaker 1>and other than the fact that I do a podcast,

<v Speaker 1>I would say, it's the two h's habit and hope.

<v Speaker 1>I watch out of habit and I hope it's going

<v Speaker 1>to get better. You try to be optimistic about it.

<v Speaker 1>That's all you can do. Dak from Saint Paul, Minnesota.

<v Speaker 1>I'm writing this before Friday SmackDown, so I obviously won't

<v Speaker 1>know the outcome of the women's title match between Tiffany

<v Speaker 1>and Jade. On NXT, we saw Tiffy, Rhea, and Stephanie

<v Speaker 1>coming out and confronting fatal Influence and setting up a

<v Speaker 1>six woman tag for the following Tuesday. My question to

<v Speaker 1>you is does this match seem completely illogical and ridiculous?

<v Speaker 1>Why would Tiffany care about FI when she has a match?

<v Speaker 1>I don't know what that's supposed to mean. Why would

<v Speaker 1>Tiffany care when she has a title defense on Friday?

<v Speaker 1>Why bump the world title signing from Monday and then

<v Speaker 1>have Stephanie's show up for NXT. It just feels hard

<v Speaker 1>to be invested in this match when there feels like

<v Speaker 1>zero logic to it. Maybe I'm just stupid and don't

<v Speaker 1>get it, but what do you think about the match

<v Speaker 1>and how they went about setting it up?

<v Speaker 2>Now, you're not.

<v Speaker 1>Stupid, But as I said earlier, this is just a

<v Speaker 1>special anniversary type show that they're doing from Full Sale,

<v Speaker 1>so they're trying to pop a rating and they're going

<v Speaker 1>back home right to Full Sale University, and so they're

<v Speaker 1>just trotting out a bunch of old names to put

<v Speaker 1>together a special show that won't really have a whole

<v Speaker 1>lot of influence on the week to week storylines. So

<v Speaker 1>it's out of nowhere, But it's not because it's all

<v Speaker 1>tied into where they're going to be on Tuesday. If

<v Speaker 1>they were just doing another random episode of NXT from

<v Speaker 1>the PC and all of a sudden, these three women

<v Speaker 1>are teaming together. Then yeah, that would be fucking weird.

<v Speaker 1>I don't read into it any more than that, though,

<v Speaker 1>Dominic from Connecticut, I wanted to get your honest thoughts

<v Speaker 1>on Seth Rawlins. Well, I know you respect is in

<v Speaker 1>ring ability and longevity. I have noticed that you are irritated, bored,

<v Speaker 1>or apathetic with a lot of his segments and work,

<v Speaker 1>Especially recently. You have made comments such as the less

<v Speaker 1>Seth on TV, the better, and that you like him

<v Speaker 1>in small doses. Do you think he is undeserving of

<v Speaker 1>the top spot that he is currently in. Is there

<v Speaker 1>a version of Seth that you prefer over the others?

<v Speaker 2>Actually there is.

<v Speaker 1>I still maintain that Shield Seth Rollins was the best

<v Speaker 1>Seth Rollins, especially in ring, like when they win, Babyface

<v Speaker 1>and Rollins would get like the Babyface hot tag, and

<v Speaker 1>there was nobody better at.

<v Speaker 2>It in wrestling. At that time. He was fucking great.

<v Speaker 1>And that's not to say that he's not great in

<v Speaker 1>the ring now. He's just you know, he's ten years older,

<v Speaker 1>he's had injuries, and you know, you're not going to

<v Speaker 1>be the same that you were when you were ten

<v Speaker 1>years younger, so me being sort of apathetic towards Seth.

<v Speaker 1>I've never liked this character that he's done where he

<v Speaker 1>comes at and calls himself the visionary, the revolutionary, and

<v Speaker 1>he you know, hums to his song and every like.

<v Speaker 1>That character has always irritated me. I mean, for him,

<v Speaker 1>it's the perfect heel character, I guess, but yeah, I've

<v Speaker 1>never liked this character.

<v Speaker 2>I don't know what he's supposed to be.

<v Speaker 1>You know, he was coming out of the funny outfits

<v Speaker 1>and everything, and I just I wasn't sure that he

<v Speaker 1>even knew exactly what he was trying to be. So

<v Speaker 1>I just don't like the character. And I do think

<v Speaker 1>that when you have an overload of a lot of

<v Speaker 1>people on TV, that could be a bad thing. Unless

<v Speaker 1>you are just that special of a performer and just

<v Speaker 1>that entertaining, then you can make it work. You know,

<v Speaker 1>Prime Rock in the late nineties, early two thousands, If

<v Speaker 1>you put him in half a dozen segments on the show,

<v Speaker 1>I guarantee you all half a dozen segments would probably

<v Speaker 1>be pretty great and pretty entertaining. Seth Rollins is not

<v Speaker 1>that guy. He's not the guy that I want to

<v Speaker 1>see plastered all over the show show. I do think

<v Speaker 1>he's better in small doses, especially when he's on the mic.

<v Speaker 1>I just, you know, so many times, like when he's

<v Speaker 1>in there with Punk where he gets that one guy

<v Speaker 1>that he's really angry with, like he could turn out

<v Speaker 1>some really great output on the microphone. But a lot

<v Speaker 1>of the times it's not that, you know, it's just

<v Speaker 1>him doing his stick, and I don't find it entertaining.

<v Speaker 1>I don't think he's undeserving of the spot. I think

<v Speaker 1>that he probably is the male MVP in WWE so

<v Speaker 1>far in twenty twenty five. So you know, when you

<v Speaker 1>hear me make comments like that, I don't want you

<v Speaker 1>to mistake it for hatred of Seth. It's just that,

<v Speaker 1>you know, when you get too much of him, I

<v Speaker 1>think too much of him makes for bad TV, and

<v Speaker 1>I think in smaller doses he is better.

<v Speaker 2>I think there's a lot of truth in that.

<v Speaker 1>Josh from Minnesota Believe a Blaine, Minnesota. When aj Lee

<v Speaker 1>came back after fangirling super hard and having her theme

<v Speaker 1>stuck in my head all of Saturday, I started thinking

<v Speaker 1>of possible matches and scenarios for her. I wanted to

<v Speaker 1>get your opinion on two. Do you think that they

<v Speaker 1>would have aj Lee hold the WWE or Women's World

<v Speaker 1>Championship before WrestleMania, or even have her potentially win the

<v Speaker 1>Royal Rumble. I feel like she may be a top

<v Speaker 1>favorite to win the Rumble now that she's back. Well,

<v Speaker 1>of course she's gonna be a fair she's automatically a

<v Speaker 1>favorite to win. I don't think she's going to. I mean,

<v Speaker 1>we're still very early out yet from the Rumble. I

<v Speaker 1>still think if liv Morgan can make it back in time,

<v Speaker 1>she would be my favorite to win the Rumble next year.

<v Speaker 1>So I don't see aj winning the Rumble, but she's

<v Speaker 1>gonna obviously be in that top five. If you have

<v Speaker 1>to make like a top five list of I think

<v Speaker 1>of the favorite names to win the Rumble, she would

<v Speaker 1>be in the top five. She might even be in

<v Speaker 1>the top three. As far as the championship holding it

<v Speaker 1>before WrestleMania, I don't see that. And also, after thinking

<v Speaker 1>of possible matches that she could have, one that came

<v Speaker 1>straight to mind was her in Roxanne Perez. But if

<v Speaker 1>they do that, what do you think of them doing

<v Speaker 1>maybe a double turn and having a baby fit Roxanne

<v Speaker 1>take down a heel aj Lee for either the Intercontinental

<v Speaker 1>or Women's World title. Not a fan of her doing

<v Speaker 1>that as a heel anytime in the near future. She

<v Speaker 1>just came back. She's a massive babyface. CM Punk's a babyface.

<v Speaker 1>I think it would be hard to turn her heel

<v Speaker 1>and have Punks still be a babyface. She signed a

<v Speaker 1>multi year long term contract though she's back full time,

<v Speaker 1>so could she turn heel at some point maybe a

<v Speaker 1>year from now, two years from now, sure, but there's

<v Speaker 1>no way that you turn aj Lee heel anytime in

<v Speaker 1>the next six months, eight months, Like, I just think

<v Speaker 1>that would be completely ridiculous. Her and Roxanne, though, that's

<v Speaker 1>a natural match. I think that's a natural program, especially

<v Speaker 1>given how big of a fan Roxanne was of hers

<v Speaker 1>when she was younger. I think Roxanne could be the heel.

<v Speaker 1>I think that's fine. She doesn't have to be the

<v Speaker 1>babyface in that program. June aid from England. With John

<v Speaker 1>Moxley being one of the top guys within AW and

<v Speaker 1>someone who Tony Kan has relied on to steady the

<v Speaker 1>ship during uncertain times, it got me thinking, what if

<v Speaker 1>John Moxley had stayed in WWE, how would his career

<v Speaker 1>have looked if he would have stayed, how would he

<v Speaker 1>have played into the bloodline angle, Cody's return and everything

<v Speaker 1>that went down to Wrestlemany of forty with Seth being

<v Speaker 1>Cody's right hand man. How would Dean Ambrose be booked

<v Speaker 1>under a Paul Levek WWE? And how would aw look

<v Speaker 1>without one of their top names? And who do you

<v Speaker 1>think fills that spot? That's a lot of what ifs.

<v Speaker 1>I don't know who fills that spot. I don't know

<v Speaker 1>who that person is. I mean, Jericho was kind of

<v Speaker 1>that guy for a while. He was that WWE guy

<v Speaker 1>they brought in who had a name, who really helped

<v Speaker 1>get them established. So I mean Jericho, maybe they would

<v Speaker 1>have relied on him a little bit more heavily. You

<v Speaker 1>know what Dean Ambrose's career would have looked like in

<v Speaker 1>WWE under Triple H. Honestly, I think he would have

<v Speaker 1>been firmly planted in the mid card, like mid card,

<v Speaker 1>upper mid card, with the occasional main event program, very

<v Speaker 1>much in a Kevin Owens type role. Kevin Owens is

<v Speaker 1>a main event guy, but he has not spent the

<v Speaker 1>majority of his time in the main event in WWE.

<v Speaker 1>He's been in and out of the main event. That's

<v Speaker 1>how it would be for Dean Ambrose. He was always

<v Speaker 1>the odd man out when it came to all three

<v Speaker 1>Shield members. Moxley had to leave.

<v Speaker 2>He had.

<v Speaker 1>He left because he wasn't happy and that was not

<v Speaker 1>going to change under a triple h because in leaving

<v Speaker 1>he also got to embrace the style of wrestling that

<v Speaker 1>he loves working, and it's a style that he never

<v Speaker 1>would have been allowed to work in WWE. Patrick from Montreal.

<v Speaker 1>Ever since Mercedes Monet won Nine Belts, I noticed she

<v Speaker 1>receives a lot of criticism from legends. Jim Cornett says

<v Speaker 1>she sucks now, Dutch Mantel claims that she was never

<v Speaker 1>that talented in WWE, and Stevie Richards claims aw has

<v Speaker 1>exposed her weaknesses because she no longer has the WWE

<v Speaker 1>machine behind her. So a couple of questions, are some

<v Speaker 1>of the miserable former WWE legends with podcasts adding way

<v Speaker 1>too much fuel to the toxicity and tribalism in the IWC,

<v Speaker 1>And if Mercedes was in WWE right now with nine belts,

<v Speaker 1>would she get the same hate Because the only problem

<v Speaker 1>I see with her is her MIC's skills, but her

<v Speaker 1>matches rained from pretty good to amazing. Now she's got

<v Speaker 1>a great body of work in the ring. Look at

<v Speaker 1>some of the great matches that she's put together ever

<v Speaker 1>since she joined AW. Nobody can doubt her in ringwork.

<v Speaker 1>Do I think that the you know, the wrestler hosted

<v Speaker 1>podcasts who go in on her all the time the

<v Speaker 1>way they do.

<v Speaker 2>Add to the toxicity. Of course they do. Yeah, they

<v Speaker 2>feed into it for sure. You know.

<v Speaker 1>My knock on it is that she walks around with

<v Speaker 1>nine belts, most of which don't mean anything. So her

<v Speaker 1>having nine championships in and of itself does not make

<v Speaker 1>her great. I think it's her in ringwork that makes

<v Speaker 1>her great. I think she's a great performer. But there

<v Speaker 1>are people who just aren't fans of of her wrestling,

<v Speaker 1>or aren't fans of her you know, verbal skills on

<v Speaker 1>the microphone. They don't find her interesting. She had that

<v Speaker 1>segment a few weeks ago where she had all of

<v Speaker 1>her belts laid out across the table and was celebrating,

<v Speaker 1>and it's like, I've never seen somebody on TV with

<v Speaker 1>nine belts just be so uninteresting. So there are fair

<v Speaker 1>criticisms of her that you can make without you know,

<v Speaker 1>making them personal. Do I think that she would be

<v Speaker 1>getting the same level of hate if she had nine

<v Speaker 1>belts in WWE. She would still be getting some hate.

<v Speaker 1>It would not be as vocal as it is. That

<v Speaker 1>much I can say, because a lot of it also

<v Speaker 1>comes from people who are just generally vocal about anything

<v Speaker 1>outside of WWE, and specifically Tony Connen aw So a

<v Speaker 1>lot of those same people. If Mercedes were to come

<v Speaker 1>back to WWE and had a bunch of championships, then no,

<v Speaker 1>they would not be as vocally against her as they

<v Speaker 1>are now. That is absolutely part of it. Speaking of Montreal,

<v Speaker 1>we have it is from Jose in New York City.

<v Speaker 1>I wanted to get your thoughts on my opinion about

<v Speaker 1>the best wrestling cities both domestically and internationally as part

<v Speaker 1>of my Mount Rushmore. Domestically, I have Chicago, New York, Philadelphia,

<v Speaker 1>and Boston. Internationally, I would choose London, Paris, Montreal, and

<v Speaker 1>San Juan Puerto Rico. Well, right, First of all, I

<v Speaker 1>have to say San Juan Puerto Rico would not technically

<v Speaker 1>be considered an international location, so you have to scratch

<v Speaker 1>that from your Mount Rushmore and add a different one.

<v Speaker 1>I'm not going to do the Mount Rushmore thing. But domestically,

<v Speaker 1>when you say best, I assume you mean the loudest.

<v Speaker 1>We're not talking about drawing power here. We're talking about

<v Speaker 1>like just this loud, energetic crowd New York, which can

<v Speaker 1>be hit or missed. But I think by and large

<v Speaker 1>New York and definitely Chicago. I would actually put Chicago

<v Speaker 1>at number one. New York and Chicago were at the

<v Speaker 1>top of the list, and you know who I would

<v Speaker 1>throw in there, Seattle. I feel like Seattle is generally

<v Speaker 1>pretty loud whenever they visit. Montreal is another. So internationally,

<v Speaker 1>I mean most of the crowds are loud. I mean London,

<v Speaker 1>they were just in Paris. You heard that crowd leone France.

<v Speaker 1>I guess I'll just say France. But as far as

<v Speaker 1>like a whole list, I mean, I don't know. Those

<v Speaker 1>are the ones that come to mind for me. Big

<v Speaker 1>Zeus from Washington, d C. I was wondering if there's

<v Speaker 1>any truth to the story that Shawn Michaels used as

<v Speaker 1>backstage stroke to win the European title off of Davy

<v Speaker 1>Boyce Smith. As I've heard it, Davey wanted to dedicate

<v Speaker 1>the match to his sister, who was battling cancer, and

<v Speaker 1>he was originally going to go over by d Q,

<v Speaker 1>but Sean being Sean, convinced Vince McMahon to put the

<v Speaker 1>title on him to generate heat, which Davy reluctantly went

<v Speaker 1>along with, only for Sean to fingerpoke drop it to

<v Speaker 1>Triple H a few weeks later. Was that the plan

<v Speaker 1>all along? Or did Sean screw Davy? It was definitely

<v Speaker 1>not the plan all along. He did finger poke drop

<v Speaker 1>it quote unquote finger poke to triple H. It was

<v Speaker 1>actually a couple months later, but yes, that's exactly what happened.

<v Speaker 1>Davy Boy was supposed to win. The finish was set.

<v Speaker 1>He did dedicate the match to his sister, who she

<v Speaker 1>wasn't just battling cancer, she was terminally ill. She was

<v Speaker 1>dying with cancer. Not only did he dedicate the match

<v Speaker 1>to his sister, his sister escorted him down to the ring.

<v Speaker 1>I think his wife was supposed to Diana. I've heard

<v Speaker 1>her say that the agent for the match, and she

<v Speaker 1>would never say who it was, but she claimed the

<v Speaker 1>agent didn't like them to begin with, didn't like Davy,

<v Speaker 1>but he didn't want her out there like escorting him

<v Speaker 1>to the ring because Princess Diana had just died only

<v Speaker 1>weeks before this, and the agent felt like this Diana

<v Speaker 1>looked a lot like that Diana, and so I guess

<v Speaker 1>it would have been in poor taste send I don't

<v Speaker 1>really understand the logic there, but they wanted some model

<v Speaker 1>to escort a Davy instead to the ring, and Davy said,

<v Speaker 1>I'm not coming to the ring with a random model,

<v Speaker 1>so he took his sister with him instead. But Sean

<v Speaker 1>got Invince's ear. That's what happened and triple H two.

<v Speaker 1>I'm sure just like he did with Montreal, because he's

<v Speaker 1>a snake, and suddenly the finish got changed. This is

<v Speaker 1>what happens when you let the inmates run the asylum,

<v Speaker 1>and you see what ended up happening. I'm sure Sean

<v Speaker 1>got in his ear and said, hey, let me win

<v Speaker 1>the belt here and the next time we come back

<v Speaker 1>to the UK for one of these pay per views,

<v Speaker 1>and I think they came back it was the following.

<v Speaker 2>April.

<v Speaker 1>I think that was that Mayhem and Manchester show that

<v Speaker 1>they did. You know, when we come back, I'll drop

<v Speaker 1>it back to Davy. Meanwhile, by that point Davey was

<v Speaker 1>gone and Seawan was gone. Right after WrestleMania, he went

<v Speaker 1>away and that was back during that period where he was,

<v Speaker 1>you know, popping more pills than a pharmacist. His back

<v Speaker 1>was wrecked and he wasn't wrestling anymore. But whatever explanation

<v Speaker 1>he gave to Vince, Vince went along with it.

<v Speaker 2>It was terrible. Jack from Jacksonville.

<v Speaker 1>You recently mentioned that the cmpunk situation was easily aw's

<v Speaker 1>darkest day. What do you consider to be some of

<v Speaker 1>WWE's darkest days. I would say the night Vince McMahon

<v Speaker 1>stood in the middle of that empty arena and announced

<v Speaker 1>the death of Chris Benois and his family is the

<v Speaker 1>darkest day in WWE history, and the night that Owen

<v Speaker 1>Hart fell to his death in the ring. Those are

<v Speaker 1>the only correct answers. Nothing else even comes close. Christian

<v Speaker 1>from Las Vegas with a buy, sell and rent question.

<v Speaker 1>I've always appreciated when a wrestler has a standout performance

<v Speaker 1>where they lose a high stakes match but their heart

<v Speaker 1>and performance get them more over despite losing.

<v Speaker 2>Well, I mean, that's.

<v Speaker 1>Sort of the whole point of the Brett Hart Steve

<v Speaker 1>Austin submission match or Wrestle Many at thirteen, but he

<v Speaker 1>says rent and sell on these three matches were one

<v Speaker 1>wrestler loss but got more over due to their performance.

<v Speaker 1>Kazuchka Okada against Kenny Omega at Wressell Kingdom eleven, Gunther

<v Speaker 1>against Seamus at Clash at the Castle twenty twenty two.

<v Speaker 1>Undertaker versus Jeff Hardy on Raw in a ladder match.

<v Speaker 2>Two thousand and two.

<v Speaker 1>So I'm actually gonna buy on Okata and Omega at

<v Speaker 1>Wressell Kingdom e eleven. That was the match that made

<v Speaker 1>Omega as far as I'm concerned. This was their first

<v Speaker 1>match together and it opened a lot of eyes as

<v Speaker 1>to what kind of star Kenny could really be. So

<v Speaker 1>I gotta buy on that. I'm gonna rent on Undertaker

<v Speaker 1>and Jeff Hardy. I might have bought on the Jeff

<v Speaker 1>Hardy match if it had led to a big run

<v Speaker 1>for him, but Jeff was dealing with his personal problems,

<v Speaker 1>and I think it was less than a year later

<v Speaker 1>he was gone from the company. But people still talk

<v Speaker 1>about that moment or you know, or Undertaker, who was

<v Speaker 1>a heel, put him over at the end, and I

<v Speaker 1>think he helped him to his feet. Maybe he shook

<v Speaker 1>his hand. Whatever it was, I'm gonna sell on Gunther

<v Speaker 1>and Seamus. I'm a little confused on why you would

<v Speaker 1>include this one because Seamus at that point he was

<v Speaker 1>already very well established.

<v Speaker 2>I don't know that it got him more over.

<v Speaker 1>I think Seamus was already as over as he was

<v Speaker 1>going to be at that point, so I don't think

<v Speaker 1>it got him more over. I just think they had

<v Speaker 1>a just a great classic match. I thought it was

<v Speaker 1>the WWE match of the year that year, and that's

<v Speaker 1>really it is a great match. I couldn't even really

<v Speaker 1>tell you what they did after that with Seamus, so

<v Speaker 1>I wouldn't say it got him moreover. He was already over.

<v Speaker 1>Steve from Virginia, what are your favorite uses of foreshadowing

<v Speaker 1>in pro wrestling? Oh, that's a good one. Well, the

<v Speaker 1>earliest use of foreshadowing that I can remember as a

<v Speaker 1>fan would have been Macho Man looking at Hogan every

<v Speaker 1>time he would elebrate with Elizabeth Right, they were foreshadowing

<v Speaker 1>that the Mega Powers explosion was coming months before it happened.

<v Speaker 1>Stone Cold in the sit down with the Rock before

<v Speaker 1>their match of WrestleMania seventeen, when he said I need

<v Speaker 1>to beat you Rock, I need more than anything that

<v Speaker 1>you could ever imagine. Right, And then what actually happened

<v Speaker 1>in the match, right, that was a great use of foreshadowing.

<v Speaker 1>And then you know, honestly, it may not have been intended. Right,

<v Speaker 1>Nobody at the beginning of the year could have predicted

<v Speaker 1>what would happen at the end of that year, not

<v Speaker 1>even Vince McMahon himself, but Brett Hart going around for

<v Speaker 1>almost a year bitching about being screwed right from the

<v Speaker 1>moment he came back at the end of nineteen ninety

<v Speaker 1>six and he got that first championship match. It was

<v Speaker 1>the month after that first match with Steve Austin and

<v Speaker 1>Brett wrestled sid at An in Your House, and Shawn

<v Speaker 1>Michaels was ringside for that match on commentary and Sewn

<v Speaker 1>ended up getting in and they collided on the apron

<v Speaker 1>and Breck up power bombed and pinned. They screwed me.

<v Speaker 1>They screwed him out of the title when Shawn Michaels

<v Speaker 1>interfered in that match. They screwed me out of a

<v Speaker 1>Royal Rumble win.

<v Speaker 2>Right.

<v Speaker 1>Steve Austin then screwed him out of the title when

<v Speaker 1>he lost the belt. To sid on Monday Night Row.

<v Speaker 1>They screwed him again when he lost the cage match

<v Speaker 1>to Sid on Raw. That was the night that he

<v Speaker 1>shoved Vince McMahon down on his ass. One screw job

<v Speaker 1>after another, only to lead to a very real screw

<v Speaker 1>job at Survivor Series. Like, if that isn't some eerie

<v Speaker 1>foreshadowing of life imitating art, I don't know what is,

<v Speaker 1>and I didn't even realize it until just recently. I

<v Speaker 1>was watching the match again when WWE uploaded to their

<v Speaker 1>YouTube channel as part of their fifty Greatest WrestleMania Matches countdown.

<v Speaker 1>They uploaded Brett Hart and Stone Cold WrestleMania at thirteen.

<v Speaker 1>There's a moment in that match where Steve Austin tries

<v Speaker 1>to put Brett in the sharpshooter but he can't get

<v Speaker 1>it applied, and then Jerry says, oh, that would be

<v Speaker 1>the greatest thing ever right for Brett Hart to have

<v Speaker 1>to submit to the sharpshooter, and Vince McMahon just goes, Hey,

<v Speaker 1>it could happen. Then you think about what happened that

<v Speaker 1>night in Montreal. I that's just wild Neil from Chicago

<v Speaker 1>with a non wrestling buyer cell and we'll end with this.

<v Speaker 1>I'm throwing a curveball asking this, but I would like

<v Speaker 1>to know buy or sell on who you enjoy or

<v Speaker 1>enjoyed watching more John Candy or Chris Farley.

<v Speaker 2>Man.

<v Speaker 1>I loved them both, both gone far too soon, two

<v Speaker 1>comedic geniuses. Farley and Tommy Boy in Black Sheep was great.

<v Speaker 1>Beverly Hills, Ninja not so much obviously, he was great

<v Speaker 1>on SNL. I love Matt Foley, but I got a

<v Speaker 1>buy on John Candy here. I mean Spaceballs, Home Alone,

<v Speaker 1>Armed and Dangerous planes, trains and automobiles. I try to

<v Speaker 1>watch that every year around Thanksgiving. Uncle Buck is a classic.

<v Speaker 1>He did a movie it's not as well known. I

<v Speaker 1>liked it called Who's Harry Crumb? It's It's really a shame.

<v Speaker 1>He was just far too young when he passed to

<v Speaker 1>what was he forty three? Maybe when he died. I

<v Speaker 1>know Farley was even younger than that. Anyway, Thank you Neil,

<v Speaker 1>Thank you everyone for all of the great questions. Keep

<v Speaker 1>him coming. It should be a regular schedule this week

<v Speaker 1>with all the live streams. Wrestled Baluza next weekend and

<v Speaker 1>then sound Off nine thirty next Sunday. But everything is

<v Speaker 1>just sort of up in the air right now with

<v Speaker 1>what's happening on the personal front. I'll try to keep

<v Speaker 1>you guys posted. Thank you for your understanding, be well,

<v Speaker 1>stay safe, and I will see you back here next time.

<v Speaker 1>Until then, take care, guys. The Solemn Monster sounds off

<v Speaker 1>John Moxley, in case you couldn't tell, it's still the

<v Speaker 1>aw World Heavyweight champ. That means we have another month

<v Speaker 1>of this death writer's bullshit and I can barely stomach swarm.

<v Speaker 1>Strickland is going to Dinas. He will challenge John Boxley

<v Speaker 1>for that title and he better fucking win. He's the

<v Speaker 1>right man for the job. Honestly, anybody would be the

<v Speaker 1>right man for the job. The Maytag man would be

<v Speaker 1>the right man for the job right now. The Orcan

<v Speaker 1>man would be the right man for the job right now.

<v Speaker 1>I could walk out my front door, right now, I

<v Speaker 1>could go five blocks down the street.

<v Speaker 2>First fucking guy.

<v Speaker 1>That I see, maybe he's got a bottle of beer

<v Speaker 1>in a brown paper bag, whatever it is, I'll grab him.

<v Speaker 2>He would be the man for the job.

<v Speaker 1>I would have preferred the rizzler come out and sign

<v Speaker 1>his name to that contract.

<v Speaker 2>And pin John Moxley to win the AW World title.

<v Speaker 1>I would have taken Big Boom Aj as the AW

<v Speaker 1>World Champion.

<v Speaker 2>Can you imagine the.

<v Speaker 1>Heads that would explode if that happened. Anybody but what

<v Speaker 1>they're doing now, Anybody but Moxley, anybody.

<v Speaker 2>But the Death Riders stuff. We need to move on

<v Speaker 2>from this.

<v Speaker 3>Well. Solom Monster sounds off bringing you the good, the bad,

<v Speaker 3>and the ugly. Check out the weekly live streams bonus

<v Speaker 3>content for subscribers, and follow this monster on Facebook, Instagram,

<v Speaker 3>and X The Sola Monster.

<v Speaker 2>I love you so long.